Stalker
by foraworldundeserving
Summary: "I - wait, please tell me you haven't been stalking me?" The moment of hesitation was all it took. Kurt uncurled from his chest straight away, pushing to the other side of the couch. "What the hell?" The performances that Blaine should have seen. Complete
1. Prologue

**Kurt Hummel has captured my eye ever since the first episode of Season One, and I know I'm not alone in that. And through his two wonderful seasons on the show, he has had some amazing scenes, moments and performances that have quite literally taken my breath away. Chris Colfer absolutely deserves any and every award that can and _will _come his way for portraying such an incredible character that I as a straight Christian ****girl can relate to. He captures his audience every time he walks on screen, no matter what he's doing.**

**So, Kurt is wonderful. ****But ever since he and Blaine finally got together (and I _still _watch the scene with a huge smile on my face), something's been niggling at the back of my mind. And once we saw Kurt's _Born This Way _performance, the thought came to me that I know many many others have had:**

**Wouldn't it be amazing if Blaine had somehow seen all of those incredible performances of Kurt's, but in a way that still fits with canon?**

**Well, that's what us writers are for, right? ;)**

**Italics is the present day while normal type is the past. I know it's usually the other way around but most of this story is happening in the past, so yeah.**

**This is the introduction so it's only going to be short. Expect the other chapters to be at least a bit longer...**

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><p><em>Blaine wrapped his arms firmly around Kurt's waist as they kissed. It was finally summer, and after the hectic last few weeks of the year with performances, preparation for Nationals, Kurt in New York and organizing summer plans, it had been a long time since Kurt and Blaine had been able to see each other for the sole purpose of just being boyfriends. Kurt's family were out - Burt had left reluctantly for an emergency down at the shop after the boys had promised to behave - and the two were taking the time to just be together. <em>

_He and Kurt and been dating for the past three months and life was amazing. Sure, there were bumps and arguments - Kurt was a very passionate person and Blaine admitted to being mostly clueless about subtle nuances. But they worked through it together._

"_Mm." Kurt pulled away, raising a hand to cover Blaine's mouth as he tried to follow with his lips. "Hey, just let me talk."_

_Blaine raised an eyebrow but moved back obediently, making enough room that he wouldn't be so tempted to continue locking lips with his gorgeous boyfriend. "What's wrong, babe?" _

"_No, nothing serious. I just wanted to say how lucky I am to have you."_

_And something in Kurt's voice - so full of emotion - made Blaine's throat close up. _

"_Blaine, I never imagined this sort of thing would happen to me. I mean, I figured some day I'd be in a relationship, I wasn't so miserable as to think I'd be alone forever or any of that crap. But I always figured it would happen somewhere down the track when I'd moved to New York to study fashion. I never imagined I'd find someone like you here in Ohio."_

_Blaine reached out, running a hand softly down Kurt's cheek. "I - I never thought I would either," he murmured._

_Kurt sniffed a little before continuing. "And then you came along, and after everything we've both been through, being able to find each other and be this happy, it's like a dream, Blaine. And every day I wake up and smile, knowing I can see you and text you and kiss you, and we can go on dates and .. and I can just have you."_

_A tear ran down his cheek and Blaine shifted his hand to wipe it away gently. "I love you, Kurt."_

"_I love you too, Blaine." Kurt leant back in, kissing him softly and pressing gently against his body. They took the time to explore one another's mouths, expressing their love for one another in a way words couldn't quite catch. _

_Kurt pulled away and rested his head into Blaine's chest, Blaine wrapping his arms around him tighter and wondering just how he had managed to get this beautiful boy. _"_I feel like I've known you forever, but it's only been a few months." Kurt looked up at him, moving his head to kiss him again quickly before snuggling down into his chest, his head resting on Blaine's heart. He could tell Kurt was listening to his heartbeat, something he had admitted to loving to do. "I mean, there's still so much to learn about you but at the same time I feel like I know you almost as well as I know myself."_

_Blaine hummed in agreement, focusing on the way Kurt's head rose and fell with his breathing. There was another comfortable silence again before Kurt spoke._

"_But that's nothing on how well you seem to know me. I mean, if I didn't know you better I'd say you've been stalking me." Kurt chuckled, but Blaine tensed up instantly._

_Kurt noticed, of course. "Hey, I was joking." He lifted his head to look into Blaine's eyes. Blaine tried to school his features into indifference but he could never hide anything from Kurt. "Blaine, what's wrong? I - wait, please tell me you haven't been stalking me?"_

_The moment of hesitation was all it took. Kurt uncurled from his chest straight away, pushing to the other side of the couch. "What the hell?"_

"_No, baby, not like that, I swear!" Blaine reached out, taking his hands. "I can assure you I wasn't intentionally following you or anything like that, I'd never do that."_

_Kurt relaxed a little but still eyed him suspiciously. "So what, you kept running into me accidentally?"_

_Blaine nodded and Kurt frowned. "But I'd never seen you before we met at Dalton."_

"_I know." Blaine sighed. "Kurt, I should've told you this earlier, but I didn't know how to bring it up without sounding like ... well, a stalker." __Kurt chuckled and Blaine relaxed, knowing that at the very least Kurt was going to hear him out. "The first time I saw you definitely wasn't on the Dalton staircase. The first time I saw you was in September of 2009."_

_Kurt blinked. "Wait, what? 2009? That's over a year before I transferred!"_

"_Yeah, I know." Blaine continued to watch Kurt, waiting for his reaction._

"_I can't even remember what was happening back then... oh, I'd just joined Glee club, I think. Yeah, that's right. So where did you see me?"_

_Blaine took a deep breath, knowing the story was going to take a long time to explain._

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><p><strong>Next chapter will be Blaine's first sighting of Kurt. (No way, Sarah, really?)<strong>

** Since I know I have very intelligent readers, work out which would be the first semi-public performance (as in, not in the choir room) Blaine might have seen and been able to have seen without being... well, seen, by Kurt. **


	2. First

**So I kinda want to make a bit of a competition here. I want to see who can correctly predict what scenes/episodes are coming up next for the longest without getting one wrong. I should have mentioned it in the first chapter but... oh well. So these people are currently one for one and in the running to win: _Gleek-Bertha-Cecily, ricebubble, aplaidblanket, xXLittle AngelXx, flossticle, whatabeautifulmess, BeccaJamieThomas93, zoopee, ProNerdFighter, absurdlyobsessed, warblermillie, ..Glee, ptirobo _and_ lunargirl40. _So if you fourteen are up for the challenge, review on this one and take a stab at what the next sighting will be. I'll tell you now, it's a bit more difficult than you might think. **

**To the others who didn't comment on the first one but wanted to be a part of this, my apologies. If these guys all get knocked out before the end of the story, I'll just start up again so you can jump in there. And you can continue to predict if you choose, but you just won't be in the running for the prize. Yes, there is a prize. No, I'm not saying what it is just yet ;)**

**So, here we go :)**

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><p><em>Kurt had shifted back into Blaine's side, tracing patterns up and down his arm which was wrapped around Kurt's waist. Blaine spent a moment collecting his thoughts before he began.<em>

"_The first time I saw you, like I said, was September of 2009. I'd been at Dalton for about six months, long enough to form a good friendship with Wes and David. David had a girlfriend at the time whose name was Melanie..."_

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><p>"... okay, Mel, I'll be there. I love you." David hung up and smiled off into the distance for a second before suddenly hitting himself in the head. "I'm such an idiot!"<p>

"What's up, David?" Wes didn't bother looking up from his textbook as he stuffed another handful of chips into his mouth. Blaine lifted his eyes to see his friend stand up and start pacing.

"I said I'd go to my girlfriend's school this afternoon to pick her up, but I totally forgot my brother's taken off in my car for the rest of the day. Her car is in the shop so I said I'd drop her home and spend some time with her, now what?"

Wes finally tore his eyes from his textbook. "Relax. Can't she just go with a friend?"

"Her friends have cheerleading practice and she didn't make the team. She's a bit bummed about that, which is why I wanted to spend time with her."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Well you know I'd be happy to take you.."

"Really?" David turned to him eagerly. "That'd be fantastic, thanks Blaine!"

Wes sniggered before Blaine turned to him. "You're coming too."

"What? Why me?" Wes sat up, pushing his textbook aside. "I've got to study, Blaine!"

Blaine was already standing, grabbing his keys as David bounced from foot to foot. "Yeah, but he's going to her place, he'll want to stay there for awhile. That means I'll have to go get coffee or something and that'll be boring. Therefore, you're coming." Wes pouted and Blaine sighed. "Bring your textbook."

Wes grabbed the book and the three boys headed out the door. David called shotgun and the two raced to the car, Blaine refusing to unlock it until they had promised not to fight. The drive was quicker than Blaine had expected - David always whinged about visiting his girlfriend because she was so far out of the way. But Lima was only about half an hour away and between Wes and David's antics, the time passed quickly before Blaine was pulling up outside a public school. "McKinley High? Never heard of it." He shrugged, stepping out of the car and locking it.

"Just your standard public school." David looked around, frowning. "Huh, looks like they're still in." His phone buzzed and he pulled it out, reading the text. "Ah, assembly. She said we can slip in the back door, apparently since we're here there's something we'd be interested in seeing."

He shrugged. "Might as well, hey?" The other two followed David around a large building and through a door that was slightly ajar. A girl was sitting in the back row with a few seats empty beside her and David walked up to her immediately, kissing her quickly before sitting down.

"Hey, Mel." Wes sat down on the other side of David and Blaine smiled politely, moving past to sit next to Wes. He had never gotten along well with David's girlfriend, mainly because she didn't know he was gay and he didn't feel comfortable telling her. And anybody Blaine felt like he couldn't be himself around wasn't someone he wanted to spend a lot of time with.

As he examined the crowd of teenagers, a man walked out from behind a set of curtains and stepped up to the microphone. Melanie chose that moment to start talking about something but Blaine just managed to catch the man mentioning something about 'New Directions' and a performance. The crowd looked bored, but Blaine leant forward eagerly. He was always up for a performance and, if Blaine was correct in his assumption and this was their glee club, it was a chance to scope out possible competition for Sectionals. McKinley clearly hadn't competed recently, otherwise Blaine would have known of them.

"But uh, we need some new recruits. Now, I could tell you how great Glee is, but I think some of my friends would like to show you instead."

As the man stepped into the audience, the curtain opened and a small group was standing there, dressed simply in jeans and blue shirts. Blaine noticed that the group seemed to have everybody - the slightly overweight girl, the boy in the wheelchair, the obvious jock, the girl who looked like she was a complete prima donna (and the only one donning a skirt instead of jeans), the pretty Asian girl and the... absolutely gorgeous boy.

_Damn_.

Blaine felt the smile cross his face. Dalton was a good school but it was seriously lacking in good looking boys, so Blaine took any chance he got to eye up ones he found. And this was _definitely _a good looking boy. His skin was pale and impossibly smooth - not a blemish in sight. He was slender, but there was a definite trace of muscle under his tight shirt. His hair was styled to perfection - making Blaine wonder whether the boy might possibly play for his team.

But after a few seconds of examining the group, music began blasting out of the speakers and - oh _my_.

Blaine was torn between covering his eyes and standing up for a better look. When he had first seen the group, he had imagined something more along the lines of the _Black Eyed Peas, _or possibly _Journey_ - something about the group seemed to scream _Journey _to him. He certainly hadn't expected _Push It _to be the song of choice, and he didn't think _anybody _had anticipated the way these kids would be dancing.

It was nothing short of suggestive. Shameless thrusting, grinding, suggestive actions and heavy breathing all indicated the beginning of a sex riot. Considering there were only five people, they were doing a pretty good job of it.

Blaine had been right with his earlier judgment - the girl in the skirt was definitely the leader of the group, taking most of the vocals for herself. He hadn't expected, however, that she would be the most ... well, _slutty. _Especially not with those she was doing everything in her power to get close to the tall jock she was dancing with, even moving so far as to _jump on him... _Blaine shuddered and looked away. But of course his eyes kept being drawn back to that boy. And suddenly all the obscenity was drawn away, because when he danced it was _sexy_. There was an innocence about him, like he had never done anything like this before and wasn't quite sure what to think, but Blaine could tell there was more to him than that. And those _hips_... Blaine closed his mouth quickly before Wes could notice, not quite sure how long he had been gaping.

Most of his dancing seemed to be with the dark-skinned girl and Blaine felt a tight coil of jealousy spring up in him when the boy was dancing suggestively with her. _Hey, you've seen the guy once and he's probably straight, so deal! _

Blaine hadn't even been able to focus on the singing and hoped that Wes or David had picked up something that would help them from a competition angle. All he could see was the group forming a line and _thrusting _and Blaine tried not to choke.

The jock was singing now, looking around nervously as he did and Blaine presumed he was a write-in. But his voice was definitely good, and he was at least a little bit attractive so that was something. And the other boy seemed to think so, high-fiving him before _slapping his butt? _Blaine bit his lip, hoping like hell that jock-guy wasn't gay - not that it mattered, of course. It's not like he knew this boy was gay or anything, or even _knew _this boy, for that matter. But -

All of the music was pulled from Blaine's mind as the group dropped to the ground, _crawling _across the stage, and how he managed to make _that _sexy, Blaine didn't know. But the boy looked like he was going to _ravage _someone, his hands running across his body in a way that should be _illegal_, and Blaine knew he was going to go _insane_ if he had to sit there for much longer -

And then, thankfully, the song ended and complete silence fell. The group were out of breath and looking as if they weren't quite sure of what to do. A second later, a curly-haired boy was on his feet.

"YEEEEESSSSS!'

With that, the crowd went wild, jumping to their feet and cheering. Blaine followed suit, not quite sure why he was cheering for something that had disturbed him so much. But he knew it was for that _perfect _boy who was smiling hesitantly, as if not used to having so much attention on him.

And then the crowd were making their way out and in all the noise and hustle, the Glee club disappeared back through the curtains. Blaine sighed. He knew he wouldn't have been able to talk to the boy without seeming weird - _Hi there, I'm a gay private school kid who just so happened to crash your performance and found you hot. What's your name? _- but being able to look at him for a bit longer would have been nice.

"Blaine?"

Reluctantly, Blaine turned his attention back to the boys, pulling out his keys. "Yeah, let's go."

David and Melanie were chatting about something as they left the auditorium, leaving Wes free to lean over and mutter in Blaine's ear, "See something you liked in there, did you?"

Blaine knew he was blushing, but ignored his friend as the group got in the car. He kept his eyes peeled as he pulled out of the parking lot, knowing the chances were slim but did it anyway. Just in case.

* * *

><p>"<em>I can't believe you saw that!" Kurt buried his head into Blaine's chest in embarrassment.<em>

_Blaine chuckled, stroking his hair gently. "You didn't do it voluntarily, I presume?"_

"_No way." Kurt shuddered. "Rachel wanted Finn and she wanted our first performance to please the student body so we could perform for them more often. The Celibacy Club was the place to be at that point and Quinn was the head of it -"_

"_Didn't she get pregnant though?" Blaine interrupted._

_Kurt sighed. "Yes, I know. Stupid school. Anyway, Rachel wanted Finn to see that celibacy was a stupid idea so she put on that display, leading to Quinn, Santana and Brittany joining the club."_

_There was a comfortable silence before Kurt groaned again. "I really wish you hadn't seen it though."_

_Blaine couldn't help but laugh. "Kurt, I just told you I thought you were sexy from the minute I first saw you and you're complaining?"_

_Kurt lifted his head, his eyes alight. "Well, I guess _that's _not so bad," he murmured, leaning in to kiss Blaine again. Blaine allowed the kiss to go deeper, running his hands through Kurt's hair before he broke away._

"_Not so fast. You've got more stories to tell me, mister!"_

_Blaine rolled his eyes, but obediently thought back to the next memory before realizing that it wasn't actually a performance and wondering how he was going to explain this one. _

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! I look forward to hearing from you fourteen in particular ;)<strong>


	3. Second

**Well, this chapter was a very difficult one to guess and for awhile there, I thought nobody would get it! But we got five people to get it right - _flossticle, warblermillie, aplaidblanket, whatabeautifulmess _and _XxLittle AngelxX_. So congratulations to you guys, you're continuing forward in the competition! :) **

**To the others, and to anybody who may invariably critique/complain, I am aware that this isn't a performance at all, but I did say that it wasn't. This was just a chapter I wanted to put in because I felt it helped progress things from Blaine's point of view. **

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><p>"<em>So it wasn't long after that when I actually saw you again. Except this time you weren't singing and I didn't sneak into your school. Not really."<em>

_Kurt laughed, a sound that still managed to send a shiver down Blaine's back. He reached up to twist his hands through Blaine's curls, humming softly as he did. "Do tell, then."_

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><p>"Thanks again for doing this, Blaine."<p>

Blaine smiled. "It's not a problem." He parked outside the mechanic and David jumped out of the car, leaving him and Wes to wait. Melanie's mechanic was just outside of Westerville and, for some reason, Blaine had volunteered his car again to take David to pick the car up, follow him down to Lima so he could drop it off, then take David back to Dalton. Why Melanie couldn't drive him back herself, Blaine didn't know... or didn't like to speculate on as he didn't believe in bad mouthing people behind their backs. _Melanie sometimes though... _

The car pulled out of the mechanic and Blaine followed, flicking with the radio idly until Wes spoke. "So, about that performance the other day -"

Blaine groaned. "Wes, not again. Yes, I thought he was attractive. No, I'm not going to track him down. And no, I don't want David to use Melanie's 'sources' to find out if he's gay or not."

"He is."

"I - really?"

Wes nodded. "And no, I didn't sleuth. David was talking to Melanie about the performance and the school's reaction and she mentioned that the head cheerleader and her friends were threatening to tarnish their reputations by, in her words, 'doing what the jock did and joining the loser club with the black chick, wheelchair guy, stutter girl, RuPaul and the fag.'" Blaine winced and Wes immediately looked apologetic. "I should've changed that, I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. I just hate the thought of him being called that." There was a moment of silence where Blaine was left to his thoughts before he hesitantly asked, "So, you didn't catch his name?"

Wes shook his head. "Sorry. I'm sure we could find out if you really want to know."

"Don't worry. Like I said, nothing's going to come of it." Blaine focused his attention back on the road and thankfully Wes got the hint, taking over the radio and searching for a good song.

Blaine was left to his thoughts which were, of course, focused around that boy. _So, he's gay. That doesn't change anything except there's another gay guy in Ohio who's in a show choir, and you don't even know how well he sings because he didn't get any solos. Forget that, you don't even know his name!_

Melanie's car pulled into a driveway and Blaine pulled up to the side of the road. Melanie came out of the house, locking lips with David and Blaine turned away. He had never thought a great deal of the girl, but now that he had heard what she thought of the Glee club at McKinley, he really didn't want to spend much time with her. But it didn't look like that was happening. "Guys!" David gestured to them and Blaine and Wes reluctantly got out of the car and walked over to join them. "Apparently McKinley's holding a car wash today, and Melanie would love it if we could go to support her friends."

Blaine frowned. "I don't know, what's the fundraiser for?"

"Well I'm just going because my cheerleading friends are going to be there." Melanie tossed her hair back and Blaine repressed the urge to shudder. It wasn't so much that he didn't find females at all attractive, but when they were wearing revealing tops and short skirts like this one, he wasn't interested in the slightest. "But apparently the loser club need money so they can do well in their performance thing."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Their Glee club needs money?"

"Yeah. Like I really care, but the car does need a wash and I'll be able to hang out with my friends and show off my boy." She turned to kiss David again who was looking slightly uncomfortable. Blaine used the opportunity to shoot a glance at Wes who shrugged.

"Sure, we'll go. Just lead the way."

David and Melanie hopped in her car, Wes and Blaine moving back to his. Blaine tried to tell himself that he was only doing this to support the group, not to see the boy again. But judging by Wes's smirk, he wasn't convincing anybody, let alone himself.

"Okay, out with it, Wes."

Wes raised an eyebrow, trying to look innocent. "I was just thinking that your boy -"

"He's not _my _boy," Blaine spat out through gritted teeth.

"Okay, okay. The boy you were watching the other day might be there and you might actually get to talk to him." Wes paused for a second. "Blaine, you're a great guy, but you keep closing yourself off to the possibility of ever finding someone. This guy's gay, and by the sounds of it, the only one in his school. If there's a chance for you to get to know him, maybe you should take it."

Blaine shrugged. "I'm not going to chase him down or anything, Wes. If we meet, well then cool. But otherwise I'm perfectly happy the way I am."

Wes was about to reply when his jaw dropped. They had just turned the corner and McKinley was in sight, where the front parking lot had been transformed into a car wash. A car wash run by scantily clad cheerleaders in skirts and bikini tops, and Blaine rolled his eyes.

"Wes, you're drooling."

His friend snapped his mouth shut, looking embarrassed. "This is unfair, you know?"

Blaine raised an eyebrow as they pulled in to the lot. "Why's that?"

"You're gay and David's in a relationship. I can't talk about how hot the girls are to anybody!"

He could help but laugh as Wes continued to whinge. Stepping out of the car, he handed his money to one of the cheerleaders before being advised that it would be about ten minutes and to have a seat and 'watch the show,' which Wes was all too happy to agree to.

Blaine and Wes made their way over to a shaded area and sat down. Wes's eyes were flitting madly between cheerleaders, leaving Blaine free to subtly look around for the boy. His eye caught on the dark-skinned girl he had seen in the performance, and as she moved aside... he saw _him_.

The smile on his face was enough to pull Wes out of his fantasies. "Oh, I know that look. Where is he?"

Blaine jerked his head in the boy's direction and Wes looked over quickly before looking back at Blaine. "Um, yeah. Interesting outfit that."

"I like it," Blaine murmured before he could stop himself. He ignored Wes's smirking and turned back to eye up the boy who was dressed in a long white jacket with a bow tie. Blaine admitted it probably wasn't the best outfit for car washing, or something Blaine himself would wear. But somehow the boy made it work.

And oh _yes_, he was definitely gay.

"Kurt!"

The diva from their _Push It _performance called out from a few cars over and the boy looked up. Blaine's eyes widened. _Kurt. _

"Yes, Rachel," he called back, looking irritated.

The girl - Rachel, it seemed - asked him something but Blaine had stopped paying attention the second the boy had spoken. _That voice... _

Blaine had never been one of those people who bought into all that hype about 'voice of an angel,' but this was pretty damn close. His voice was definitely higher than most boys his age - not that Blaine knew his _age _either - and had an edge to it that sounded like he could cut anybody with just his words alone. And Blaine knew right then he needed to hear this boy sing. Properly. He just didn't know how.

Kurt and the dark-skinned girl were talking quietly about something and Blaine looked away, not wanting to give the impression of staring if Kurt happened to look his way. So far, he was pretty sure Kurt hadn't noticed him and thought that might be a good thing. He looked down at his outfit - jeans and a black t-shirt - and decided it wasn't too bad, but not exactly impressive. Then he wondered why he cared at all, it wasn't like he was _interested _in the boy or -

A smashing sound broke into his thoughts and Blaine's head shot up to see the giant hole in the windscreen of Kurt's car, Kurt staring at it in shock. His hand flew to his mouth, wondering what had happened.

Kurt looked up and stared at the dark-skinned girl. "You busted my window! How could you? You busted my _window_!" His voice had risen in pitch and he sounded close to hysterical and absolutely _furious_. Blaine's eyes were wide - _what the hell happened there?_

"Yeah, well you busted my heart!"

The girl turned and stormed away. Blaine's head was reeling but the pieces slotted together quickly. Clearly Kurt wasn't out to this girl yet - which made Blaine wonder if he was out at _all _- and she had some kind of crush on him which had just been shattered.

He turned his attention back to Kurt who was staring after her, looking completely lost. Blaine could see the comprehension dawning on his face and he sighed, staring at the windscreen. His whole body slumped and all Blaine wanted to do was go over there and hug him.

Kurt reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone - probably calling a family member or the mechanic, Blaine decided. As he watched the boy talking, his face flat, a cheerleader stopped in front of them. "Your car's ready," she purred, flipping her ponytail back. Blaine smiled politely, shooting Kurt one last look. He was leaning against the bonnet of his car, far too many emotions crossing his face to decipher and Blaine hated how helpless he felt as he followed Wes back to his car.

"I hope he's okay," Wes murmured as they got in and Blaine started, not having realized Wes had seen what happened. "Poor kid."

Blaine nodded and they pulled out of the parking lot - David was going to get dropped home later. "Yeah, I wouldn't wish that on anybody."

* * *

><p><em>Blaine reached over and wiped the tears from Kurt's face. "Difficult memories?"<em>

_Kurt sniffed and nodded. "Yeah. I hadn't come out to anybody back then - though they all knew anyway - and Mercedes had a crush on me. I didn't realize, I mean I thought it was great that I finally had someone to hang out with. And then she sprung that on me and I panicked and ..." he ducked his head and muttered something incomprehensible._

"_What was that, baby?"_

"_I told her I had a crush on Rachel."_

_Blaine bit his lip, trying to hold it together. "Um... why?"_

_Kurt shook his head, looking up with a smile. "You can laugh, I know it's stupid. She caught me staring in Finn's direction, but luckily Rachel was right there and she just assumed it was her, and I said yes."_

_Blaine pulled Kurt back into his arms. "Well you two made up, yeah?"_

"_Of course. I told her the truth - pretty emotional moment for both of us there - and she's been my best friend ever since. I just felt awful thought that I couldn't be who she wanted."_

_Blaine kissed the top of his head. "Don't regret who you are, ever. Because if you were straight, you wouldn't be the gorgeous, sarcastic, fierce and absolutely wonderful person I can so happily call my boyfriend. Plus, Mercedes and Sam are great together, so she's happy now."_

"_I know." Kurt lifted his head for another kiss. "You always know what to say, don't you?"_

_Blaine nodded, winking. "It's part of the job, babe."_

_Kurt hit him softly. "You're so up yourself, _babe_," he mocked and Blaine chuckled. _

_There was a moment of comfortable silence before Blaine frowned. "How did you explain that to your dad? I mean, I assume that was who you were calling."_

"_Yeah. I just told him some idiot was throwing rocks around and one of them went through my windscreen. Of course he wanted a name so I said it was someone from another school and he wasn't happy but he fixed it up anyway." _

_Kurt shrugged. "It's all in the past now. Speaking of the past..." he gave Blaine a meaningful look. "I think you've got more to tell me."_

_Blaine rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay. Next story."_

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><p><strong>I skipped the part where Mercy sings Bust Your Windows... because how are you meant to explain that anyway? I know it's just one of those 'in her head' ones (at least I assume, I can't imagine the cheerleaders would <strong>_**voluntarily **_**sing with her after all) so it's easier to ignore and go straight to the scene that follows. I watched the whole thing again and seeing that look on Kurt's face when he seems to realize what's going on and he just looks so **_**lost**_**, I wanted to hug him... but I always want to hug him.**

**No hints for the next one because I'm pretty sure you five should know what it is ;) it's not obscure at all, I promise!**


	4. Third

**I think all six from last time got it right. I didn't check but... you know. This was obvious as anything. This is also one of my favourites ;)**

**I do not play football. I do not watch football. I do not **_**like **_**football. Therefore, I am putting no effort into trying to write the actual game. Basically, it starts, the game happens, McKinley sucks and then we get into what we actually want to see ;)**

* * *

><p><em>Blaine thought back, trying to make sure he kept the timeline right. When he realized what the next event was, he couldn't stop himself from chuckling.<em>

_Kurt was alert instantly. "What did you see?"_

"_Well, let's just say I've been to many football games in my time and I've never seen one quite like that."_

_Kurt's hands flew to his mouth. "You didn't?"_

"_I did."_

* * *

><p>"Wes, please?"<p>

David pouted, staring at his friend with pleading eyes. Blaine watched on with amusement as Wes shook his head. "No way, David. It's not just that I don't like football, but I can't handle that school. There's going to be cheerleaders and those girls are _hot_. And your girlfriend doesn't like me."

Blaine chuckled, but it died in his throat as David turned to him. "Blaine? I _know _you like football."

"Yes, but it's high school football, and you said McKinley hasn't won a game this season. I can't imagine it would be a good game. Besides, don't you want to spend some alone time with Melanie? You haven't seen her at all this week."

David winced slightly. "I - um, yeah. I'd rather not be alone with her right now."

Suddenly Wes was all ears. "What's going on, David?"

"I think I want to break up with her. Just not tonight, I said I'd do tonight with her. I'll go out there tomorrow and do it, but I need some support tonight."

_Stop being such a nice guy! _But the words were coming out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Okay, I'll come."

"Great! Apparently the guys have gotten a new kicker too, some guy named Hummel. They said he's not exactly normal kicker material - to be honest, I think Melanie just wants to make fun of him." David shook his head again and Wes and Blaine shared a look, both thankful their friend had finally woken up and seen the light.

David stood. "Alright, let's go."

Blaine grabbed his jacket and slipped on his shoes. They were halfway out the door when Wes spoke up. "Wait!"

They turned. "Okay, if Blaine's going, I will too." Wes was shrugging on his jacket and Blaine laughed.

"Seriously, Wes, if you need me to hold your hand before you can go anywhere, you're never going to be Head Warbler next year." Wes stuck his tongue out and the group headed downstairs. Blaine slid into the backseat of David's car and they headed off.

The drive to McKinley was far too familiar to Blaine for a school he had only first heard of a couple of weeks ago. His thoughts flew around, and somehow settled on Kurt. He had done a good job of keeping Kurt out of his thoughts after the car wash, but he occasionally found himself wondering how the boy was going and whether things were sorted with his friend.

Blaine had dealt with his own share of friendship issues after he had come out of the closet and he never wanted any other gay person to experience the same thing. His closest friend had completely rejected him, outing Blaine to the entire school and turning against him. Blaine hadn't had friends for an entire year before he got to Dalton and thinking of anybody else going through the same -

* * *

><p><em>Blaine felt the lump forming in his throat and Kurt pulled him into his arms. "I know, baby, I know. It's okay now." He rubbed his back soothingly and Blaine relaxed into the touch, swallowing his emotions back down. "Just focus on the positive, okay? Don't go back there."<em>

_He nodded. "Okay." Swallowing heavily one more time, he picked the story back up._

* * *

><p>Thoughts of Kurt were pulled from his mind as they turned into the McKinley parking lot. Blaine hadn't realized he had been thinking for so long, but sure enough they had arrived and twilight was already falling. David led the group across the grounds to where the spotlights were shining. They entered the field and Blaine couldn't help but smile. It was true, there weren't many things he loved more than a good game of football... except this apparently wasn't going to be a good game.<p>

"David!"

David cringed but quickly plastered a smile on his face as Melanie came running over and practically _threw _herself on David, locking their lips instantly. Wes and Blaine shared a look before Blaine coughed. David pulled away instantly and Melanie shot Blaine a dirty look before smiling.

"Come on, I've got us some really good seats!"

The 'good seats' were the ones right behind the cheerleaders, to Wes's delight. Melanie spent most of the warm up leaning over and talking to her friends until they had to begin their cheers and try to inspire a crowd who all seemed to know the track history of this team.

Then the game started, and from the very first play, Blaine could tell it was going to be awful.

Blaine found himself watching the game through his hands half the time, cringing every time a play went wrong. Which seemed to happen with alarming frequency - it seemed that the quarterback just couldn't get it right. Blaine watched the coach turn an interesting shade of red and wondered whether the man might explode by the end of the game. That, or have a heart attack.

Thankfully for Blaine, the game went fast. Suddenly there were 13 seconds left on the clock and Blaine was shaking his head. "There's no way they're going to recover from this," he muttered to Wes who was yawning.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

Blaine rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the game. The play was set, the clock was ticking down and he knew it was over for this team.

"Time out!"

"Oh you're kidding me!" Blaine groaned, glancing at the clock. There was exactly one second left, and the quarterback had decided to call a time out?

Down on the field, the quarterback turned to another boy and they seemed to be having an argument of some sort. Then one of the other jocks yelled out an insult - Blaine didn't bother trying to catch it, considering it started with "Ya mamma..."

Then the other boy turned to him. "Hey anklegrabber. I had sex with your mother." The boy turned away shaking his head. "No, seriously. I cleaned your pool and then I had sex with her in your bed. Nice Star Wars sheets."

Blaine laughed in surprise. "Pretty good for a jock," he said to himself - he would have told Wes but he was busy checking out the cheerleaders. As usual.

The team huddled together and the boy called the play in a low voice. The other team members reared up in surprise and Blaine blinked. _Well, I guess they're losing whichever way it goes. Better bring out something dramatic._

But he had no idea just what 'dramatic' meant to this school. The team broke and formed position, then the quarterback made a signal to the coach, who turned and signaled... _the AV team?_

"_All the single ladies, all the single ladies,"_

Blaine's jaw dropped and he resisted the urge to rub his eyes. Because all the footballers had stood, grouped together and begun to _dance. _

An absolute silence fell over the crowd. All anybody could do was stare at these footballers who were _dancing,_ and actually getting the dance _right_. Not that Blaine knew the intricacies of the _Single Ladies _dance or anything like that. Oh no, of course not.

But it was working. The other team were looking at them like they came from another planet and Blaine realized their intention - to distract them long enough to make the play.

And there it was. The ball was flicked, and thrown... Blaine held his breath, along with the rest of the crowd... and caught.

Blaine was on his feet with everybody else, cheering. So he didn't go to the school, who cares? It was a bold move that left the game in... a tie.

_The kicker._

Just as Blaine thought that, a skinny boy came running onto the field - Hummel, if he remembered correctly. His helmet was on, so Blaine couldn't see his face, but he had the niggling feeling he'd seen him before. _Well you have been to McKinley far too many times for someone who doesn't go to the school. You probably have._

The crowd grew silent as the boy stepped back from the ball, the quarterback setting it up for him. Blaine could only see the side of his helmet and brief glimpses of his face - not enough to determine his identity - as he looked around at the crowd. Blaine could tell it was Hummel's first game and his heart went out to the boy. "What a game to be your first," he muttered.

"So if he gets this, they win?" Wes was finally paying attention to the game, also watching the Hummel kid preparing to kick.

"Yeah. If he doesn't, he probably gets hated for the rest of his life."

Wes winced. "That's got to suck."

Blaine turned his attention back to the kid, praying under his breath. _Please, let him get this. Please..._

Then the same signal was made as before, and the music started playing.

"Hike!"

"_Woah oh oh, woah oh oh,"_

And this kid could _dance_. The other footballers did a pretty good job, but it was clear who had taught them. Even with the fury of the opposing footballers rearing down on him, Hummel managed to dance out the few lines of the song, before kicking the ball straight and true.

But Blaine couldn't focus on the ball, even as the crowd rose cheering around him and he knew it must have gone in. Instead, all he could see in his mind was the way that the boy's hips had _moved_...

And even before he took off his helmet, smiling from ear to ear, Blaine knew who he would see. _Kurt. Kurt... Hummel._

The footballers hoisted him on their shoulders and Blaine could see the moment of shock before the elation was back. It was the same shock that Blaine knew had passed through him when the bullies back at his old school would grab him unexpectedly for a dumpster toss or just because they could, and in that one tiny gesture, Blaine suddenly knew that Kurt dealt with the same things.

But right now, he was accepted by this group. Blaine wasn't naive enough to think it would last, and he was sure Kurt wasn't either. But he was happy, and Blaine couldn't keep the smile off his face as he watched the team parade him around the field.

A hand was waving in front of his face and he blinked. "What?"

Wes laughed. "I'll take that as a yes." Blaine frowned and he elaborated. "I was asking whether that was the same guy, but your zoned out face and goofy smile tells me all I need to know."

Blaine hit him. "Prat," he said half-heartedly. "Yes, it is him. And his name is Kurt."

Wes made some other teasing comment, but Blaine drowned him out, focusing his attention on the last glimpses of the boy before he left the field.

* * *

><p>"<em>So, when were you going to tell me you were a kicker?"<em>

_Blaine poked Kurt lightly in the side, earning a squeal of laughter and a slap. "Oi! And I don't know, it never really seemed that important. It didn't exactly last, I played that one game, came out to my Dad and then -"_

"_Wait, wait. What? That was then?"_

_Kurt sighed. "Yeah. The only reason I played at all was because I was trying to convince my Dad I was straight. He caught me dancing to that song with Tina and Brittany and Tina told him I was the kicker and it was how we warmed up. Oh, and I think I grabbed Tina's butt at that point."_

_Blaine snorted with laughter. "You never cease to amaze me, Kurt Hummel. So, you and your Dad sorted it all out of course." Kurt had told him the story of how he came out to his dad, but he had never known the situation behind it, only that Kurt had decided it was time. _

"_Yeah. I think he was proud that I at least gave sports a go... though probably glad I didn't continue. It wasn't exactly conventional." Kurt stretched a little before settling himself back into Blaine's side. "So, now you knew my full name, that I was in Glee, I played football. What was next?" __Blaine thought for a few seconds before Kurt spoke again. "What I really want to know is when David finally broke up with Melanie. I never really knew of her back then, not that I do now, but she sounds like a royal bitch. And I should know, I'm Head Bitch around here."_

_Blaine laughed again before remembering the story behind David and Melanie's breakup. He bit his lip and Kurt immediately wrapped his arms around him. "Hey, you don't have to."_

"_No. You deserve to know this one."_

* * *

><p><strong>No need to guess for the next chapter because there isn't any Kurt sightings. <strong>


	5. Melanie

**When I was looking back over the summary for "The Rhodes Not Taken," so I could see what happened, I saw that some guy named Matt had joined the group when Mike did. I was sitting there going 'who the hell is Matt?' So I looked him up and I realized I'd totally forgotten about him even being a part of the club. I mean, he was there for all of Season One and I completely forgot about him. Wow...**

**This chapter sucks, okay? And I don't mean writing quality, I mean it's depressing and not at all stalkerish and we don't see Kurt except for in present day. But I wanted it in here to show how much Blaine really was affected by Kurt already. **

* * *

><p>"<em>So unfortunately you don't star in this one. But you're still mentioned, even though I wish you hadn't been this time." Blaine turned to Kurt, taking his hands. "If it gets too difficult for you to hear this stuff, I want you to tell me to stop, okay? It's ... it's not pleasant."<em>

_Kurt squeezed them reassuringly. "I will."_

* * *

><p>The day after the football game, Wes and Blaine were lounging around their room when the door burst open and David flew in. Neither boy bothered to look up, well used to David intruding at all times of the day.<p>

"Guys, quick, it's an emergency!"

At that, Blaine was off his bed in a shot. "What happened, who's hurt?"

Wes was in a similar state. "What's happened to the setlists?"

"No, nothing like that. Melanie's going to be here in five minutes!"

Blaine stopped and turned to stare at David. "You're kidding, right? _That's _your emergency? I thought you were going out there to break up with her today anyway?"

"I was. I was just about to call her when she sent me a text saying she was just about here, I have no idea why. So I told her I'd meet her in the choir room, but you guys have to come too!"

Wes shook his head instantly. "No way, dude. We're your friends but we will not be there when you break up with your girlfriend."

"I'm not breaking up with her today!" David looked horrified at the suggestion. "You can't break up with a girl on your own turf. Because if she throws a fit - and this is Melanie, she _will _throw a fit - then you can't get rid of her. At least if I go to her house and she gets pissed at me, I can walk out."

His phone buzzed and he read the text quickly. "She's here! Please, guys?"

"You owe us." Wes was the first to cave this time and Blaine reluctantly agreed. The three boys headed down to the choir room, settling themselves on couches a minute before Melanie appeared.

"David!" The girl threw herself onto the couch next to her boyfriend and leant over to kiss him. David kept it quick to the relief of the other two boys before pulling away.

Melanie pouted but shuffled away. "Surprised to see me, baby?"

Blaine knew David hated pet names and tried not to chuckle when his friend winced slightly. "Um, yeah. What brings you here?"

"I thought I'd just come and visit so I could tell you about my week!"

David forced a smile onto his face. "Great. What's been happening?"

"Well Quinn, Santana and Brittany are still a part of that stupid Glee club," Blaine gritted his teeth, knowing this was going to be a difficult conversation to sit through if it continued on this track. "But apparently they're doing it with Coach Sylvester's permission, meaning there's obviously something going on there. They can't tell us, but I kind of hope she ends up kicking them off the team because I'm next in line for any gaps."

David nodded as Melanie continued to blabber on about her cheerleader friends and what they got up to when the teachers weren't watching.

".. and so Brittany's working on her record to sleep with everyone in the school. I think the only ones she hasn't gotten to yet are wheelchair kid and the fag."

Blaine shut his eyes for a few seconds, breathing deeply. Wes's hand touched his arm and he opened his eyes, attempting to smile at his concerned friend. _I'm okay,_ he mouthed. Wes nodded but was clearly unhappy about Melanie's choice of words too. Luckily Melanie only had eyes for David and didn't even seem to remember the other two boys were there.

"Speaking of the loser club, they've got a new singer."

Blaine immediately started paying attention. He felt slightly guilty for listening to gossip he probably shouldn't be hearing, but they'd been told who their competition were going to be yesterday - two more schools he had never heard of - and since they weren't going to be up against McKinley this time, Blaine figured it was okay.

"Yeah, she's some weird lady who never graduated. According to Quinn, she's turned everything on its head though. Manhands has left," Blaine wasn't quite sure who that referred to, "which was the original goal. I think the best thing though was what she did to the fag."

Blaine tensed. _What happened to Kurt?_

"She got him completely wasted and he threw up on the guidance counsellor." Melanie started laughing and Blaine turned to stare at Wes who also looked concerned. It wasn't like either of them had a problem with alcohol - though Blaine was saving it until he was a bit older to go there. But it sounded like Kurt had been given alcohol that he couldn't handle, possibly unaware of what was happening.

"I mean, the kid deserves it. He walks into school every day dressed like a tool and half the time looking like a _girl_, and he thinks we should just ignore him?" Melanie shook her head. "Fat chance of that. If someone's going to do that kind of thing, they deserve the teasing." Wes's hand was back on his arm but Blaine was having trouble holding it together. His teeth were clenched tightly as the girl continued. "I mean, he never really got outed or anything, but he didn't have to be. He's a walking _gay_." She spat the word out like it was poison.

"Melanie," David started, sounding nervous. The girl ignored him and continued.

"I seriously can't imagine two guys doing stuff like that. It's just gross. I mean, the jocks hate the thought of him perving on them which is why they treat him the way they do. Obviously, nobody wants a gay kid around, he's better off in the dumpster and we all seriously wish he'd just stay there sometimes -"

"Why don't you try being in his situation?"

Blaine couldn't hold it in anymore, and all of his past hurt on top of his empathy for Kurt just spilled over. "How would you feel if someone judged you for who you liked, huh? If they hated you for something you couldn't control, they threw you in dumpsters and pushed you into lockers and heaven forbid whatever _else _your school does to gay people. We're people too, _Melanie_." He used the same inflection on her voice that the girl had used on the word 'gay.'

But Melanie had only picked up on one thing of importance from Blaine's explosion. "Wait, 'we?' You're _gay?_"

"Yes, I'm gay! Does that change your opinion of me?" Blaine didn't wait for an answer. "What a stupid question, of course it does! I can see it in your face. Well, I'll tell you what. Kurt Hummel is a much better person than you'll ever be, and since it seems like nobody at his school will stick up for him, I guess I'll do it."

Blaine found himself on his feet without quite realizing how he'd gotten there. "Being gay is not a disease and it doesn't automatically make every guy in the vicinity someone to 'perve on.' Wes and David happily accept me as gay and don't worry about me perving on them, and I share a _bedroom _with Wes." He didn't miss the way Melanie shuddered, and his eyes grew wide. "Oh you are kidding me! Can you get _over _your freaking rampant homophobia for _one minute _and listen to what I'm saying? _I like guys. _That doesn't change who I am. You were fine with hanging out with me before you knew that, and I _was _gay then."

"But you weren't gay like Kurt is. I mean, he shoves it in everybody's faces -"

"So what? You walk around in short skirts and tight shirts, leaving nothing to the imagination and make it incredibly obvious that you're interested in guys, if the way you throw yourself at David says anything. It seems the only difference is that Kurt's male." Blaine shook his head. "I can't stay here any longer."

He shot an apologetic look to David who was looking horrified - hopefully about the words that had left his girlfriend's mouth, not Blaine's. He left quickly, managing to hold it together until he made it to his room before completely losing his temper. Books were flying around the room, narrowly missing windows and table lamps.

And then a pair of arms were restraining him. "Blaine, I know you're mad but this won't help."

Blaine sighed, dropping the book in his hand and falling back on his bed, all the fight gone. "It's not fair, Wes."

"I know." Wes sat next to him, biting his lip. "I don't know what to say, Blaine. I won't apologize for her, but I can tell you she won't be around here any more. David was in the process of breaking up with her when I left."

"Well, that's something." Blaine sighed again. "I just don't understand why the world hates people like me and Kurt for something as trivial as our sexuality."

Wes didn't answer and Blaine didn't blame him. Because there was no answer that anybody could give that would make behaviour like Melanie's forgivable.

* * *

><p>"<em>You okay, baby?"<em>

_Blaine nodded. "It really sucked, but I'm glad I said what I did. Neither of us should have to deal with that sort of crap in our lives."_

_Kurt wiped his eyes and sighed. "I can't believe you had to hear that."_

"_I can't believe you put up with it for so long. If I'd had more courage, I would have actually talked to you the next time I saw you and told you I knew what you were going through." Blaine leant against Kurt's shoulder, feeling slightly drained from telling the story. "But I didn't see you for ages after that anyway. We were pretty busy practicing for Sectionals ourselves."_

"_So when was the next time?" Kurt began to run a hand through his hair idly and Blaine melted into the touch, before remembering he was meant to be telling a story. _

"_Right, the next one. Well, now it gets a bit weird..."_

* * *

><p><strong>Poor Blainers :( <strong>

**Okay, continuing on with the competition :) here's your hint: any performance that is not done in the choir room, hallways, during class or in people's own homes are fair game! We have just reached the end of The Rhodes Not Taken and remember, Blaine has his ways of seeing things ;) so brush up on your Season One knowledge, darlings, you might need it! And take clues from Blaine's comments to Kurt.**

**Also, I've lost track of who is still in so please just let me know in the review if you're still in or not. **


	6. Fourth

**There are two people still in the competition -_aklaineblanket _and _littleroseangel _whose username I've forgotten so I'm using her Tumblr name. She knows who she is ;) so once one of these two gets knocked out (presuming one of them do) then the competition reopens to everybody. **

**I'm going with the concept that the Glee kids have use of the auditorium whenever it's empty to do their impromptu, but they have their 'end of the week' performance scheduled in. So they'd have a tech team running lights and stuff for that performance, because who else would? Yes, they do cut a lot of things from the show but this would have to be there. Like Brad, the Furniture Piano-man.**

* * *

><p>"<em>... Well, now it gets a bit weird."<em>

_Kurt frowned. "Weird?"_

"_Well, the first few times were literally all coincidence. I hadn't known you'd be at the car wash and certainly hadn't imagined you to be playing football." Blaine chuckled. "But when we got to the fourth coincidental sighting, I had to start wondering what was going on."_

* * *

><p>"So, kiddo, they're treating you right at Dalton?"<p>

Blaine smiled over his coffee cup. "Zero tolerance bullying policy, remember? They have to."

Alex shook his head. "Kids can get around that sort of thing, I know that. You'd tell me if something was wrong though, wouldn't you?"

"I did last time." Blaine took a sip of his coffee, watching his older brother do the same. Alex had been the one Blaine had finally gone to when the bullying got too much, and was the one who had convinced their parents that transferring was the right thing for Blaine. He was also the first one Blaine had come out to, and accepted him unconditionally.

Alex swallowed his mouthful of coffee. "Yeah, but not straight away. I only found out when you tracked me down with a black eye and that broken arm..."

His brother trailed off and Blaine knew he was feeling guilty. "Which wasn't your fault," he said firmly. "Anyway, let's talk about something better. What kind of work are you getting these days?"

Alex had graduated last year and was an technology whiz - something he had balanced out at Westerville by being the quarterback. While he was deciding whether to study at college or not, he made his way through by picking up odd jobs for schools and theatre companies to do lighting or sound work. He had been discovered, per se, by doing the lighting for a YouTube performance that went viral, and now offers were flooding in.

"Just stuff here and there. The company from the internet are considering doing another performance and they want me to do lights for that if they do." Blaine clapped his hands together in delight - he had _loved _the last performance and Alex had said if there was another, he'd try to get Blaine along so he could see it in person.

Alex's phone rang and he answered it, turning away sightly as he spoke. Blaine could tell from his brother's voice that it was a client and sighed as he realized their time might be cut short that afternoon. Blaine loved spending time with Alex, especially since he had deliberately pushed himself away from his brother during their high school years to make things easier on him. He hadn't told Alex why he had done it, but after Blaine finally swallowed his pride and came to him about the bullying, Alex caught on. He was now insistent that they make up for lost time, going out for coffee regularly and just hanging out as brothers.

"There's a school that needs me to do a job this afternoon, apparently their normal guy is sick or something." Alex was off the phone and Blaine sighed, forcing a smile onto his face.

"Okay, I understand."

Alex studied him for a moment. "You want to come with me?"

Blaine paused, then smiled. "Yeah, I would." Then he bit his lip as the thought struck him. "It's not Westerville is it?"

"No, you know I'd tell you if it was. Plus, nobody's going to see you, you'll be up the back with me."

The two boys stood and headed out of the coffee shop. As Alex drove - and Blaine still had no idea where they were going - drumming his fingers against the wheel, the two boys caught up on each other's lives. After awhile of comfortable conversation, Alex brought up the topic that always embarrassed Blaine without fail. "So, got a boyfriend yet?"

Of course Blaine had to blush. "No, nobody yet. There's a couple of other guys out at Dalton but I think they're interested in each other." And there was no way Blaine was going to come in between the possibility of Nick and Jeff getting together some day, no matter how attractive he had thought Jeff was when he first arrived.

"What about outside of Dalton?" And the smile that curved across Blaine's face was clearly enough for Alex. "There is! What's his name?"

Blaine rolled his eyes. "I've never actually talked to him, Alex." Which, of course, sounded creepy and stalkerish so Blaine quickly explained. "I've seen him a couple of times, absolutely by coincidence every time. Apparently he's the only one out at his school and I suspect he might get a hard time for it, I don't know. Like I said, never spoken to him so I can't exactly walk up to him and ask. But his name is Kurt Hummel."

"What school does he go to?"

"McKinley High. He's a part of their show choir." Blaine shrugged. "I'd never even heard of it before David's girlfriend -"

He trailed off, his jaw dropping. Because Alex had just turned the familiar corner and there it was. _Freaking _McKinley High.

_Isn't stuff like this only meant to happen on TV? _

"No way." Blaine turned to his brother in amazement. "You're setting this up, right?"

Alex shook his head. "You only just told me about him." He let out a low whistle before chuckling. "This is kinda weird. But, hey, you might get the opportunity to talk to him."

Blaine hit him lightly before jumping out of the car, suddenly nervous. It was more than likely that he _wouldn__'__t _see Kurt, after all McKinley was a huge school and they were only going there to do the lighting for - _for __what?_

"So what's this for exactly?"

Alex shrugged. "A group that performs every Friday for something. I don't know what." He grabbed his phone, dialing a number quickly. "Yes, I was called in to do tech for ... yes... okay, great. Thanks." He put his phone back in his pocket, locking the car. "In there."

Blaine followed him into an abandoned auditorium, making their way up to the sound booth. As his brother began to fiddle with controls, lighting up the stage, a man walked across the stage and glanced up at them, gesturing something. Alex turned on the stage microphones, and gave him a thumbs up.

"Just standard lighting, thanks."

Alex grabbed the control microphone. "What kind of performance are we looking at?"

"Vocal group. Show choir."

The man made his way down to the seats and Alex put back his microphone, turning to Blaine with an eyebrow already raised. "Show choir, huh?"

Blaine just stared in amazement as the McKinley Glee club made their way onto the stage. He recognized the original six from the last performance had seen - his heart jumping into his throat as Kurt entered the stage - but it looked like the group had grown in that time. Melanie had mentioned the three cheerleader girls, so Blaine assumed they were the three girls he didn't recognize, the other three he at least knew of. There were also another three guys, making their group an even twelve - _so __now __they __can __actually __perform __at __Sectionals,_ he realized. _Better __pass __that __on __to __Wes._

The group arranged themselves into two lines, the girls standing behind the boys who all sat on the stairs. Blaine's eyes immediately picked out Kurt, who was sitting next to the boy in the wheelchair. He was dressed completely in black with a white jacket and a bow tie. Blaine smiled at his fashion sense before focusing back on the girls as Rachel began to sing.

"_You're not alone, together we stand_

_I'll be by your side, you know I'll take your hand."_

As the boys and girls switched places, Rachel turned to the blonde girl beside her - one of the cheerleaders - smiling warmly and Blaine frowned. _Is __this __for __her? __Are __they... __are __they __an __item?_

* * *

><p>"<em>Hey, stop that!"<em>

_Kurt gasped for breath, pushing away from Blaine. "I - I'm sorry, babe. Just ... Quinn and - and Rachel?"_

_Blaine frowned, crossing his arms. "I didn't exactly know you guys. I knew yours and Rachel's names, that three of you were cheerleaders and you all sang well. Considering how Rachel was looking at her, it was a logical conclusion to make."_

_Kurt snorted again before composing himself and curling back into Blaine's side. "Okay, okay, I see your point." He leant up, kissing Blaine quickly before snuggling in. "Continue."_

* * *

><p>The tall boy began to sing and Blaine rolled his eyes at the predictability.<p>

"_When it gets cold, and it feels like the end,_

_There's no place to go, you know I won't give in."_

The rest of the group began to harmonize, and Blaine groaned lightly as he realized he wouldn't hear Kurt singing this time. He grudgingly admitted that Rachel and the jock sang well together, but he really wanted to hear from the boy.

"_Keep holding on, _

'_Cause you know we'll make it through,_

_We'll make it through,"_

The group began to dance in a strange formation, Blaine frowning curiously. _I __don__'__t __think __they __really __connect __as __a __group __too __well... __it__'__s __a __bit __stilted._

"_Just stay strong,_

'_Cause you know we're here for you, _

_We're here for you."_

The girls were picked up and spun by the boys. But rather than Rachel being picked up by the jock, Kurt was spinning her while the jock - Blaine _really _needed to learn his name - was holding the blonde girl. He looked at the way they stared into each other's eyes, and realized there was something going on with them, and something going on with this group.

"_There's nothing you can say,_

_Nothing you can do,_

_There's no other way when it comes to the truth,"_

As the boys and girls faced each other, Rachel and Finn still singing the lead, Blaine noticed the blonde girl suppressing a sob and quickly put two and two together. _Something__'__s __happened __with __her __and __they__'__re __banding __together __to __support __her._

"_So keep holding on,_

'_Cause you know we'll make it through."_

Kurt glanced over at the blonde girl who was still clearly fighting with her tears, and Blaine saw compassion in his eyes. Blaine knew full well that the cheerleaders were the main ones who teased him - them and the jocks of course - and yet he seemed to have nothing but sympathy for this girl, whatever her situation was.

Finn and Rachel broke into the bridge, the boys and girls splitting again with the two in the middle. Blaine raised an eyebrow at their hand gestures, hoping they'd step it up before Sectionals. Otherwise, they really didn't have much of a chance.

"_Keep holding on, _

'_Cause you know we'll make it through,_

_Make it though,"_

Blaine watched as Kurt wrapped an arm around the blonde girl, smiling at her. It was truly beautiful to watch, and Blaine couldn't stop himself from smiling as he saw the honesty in Kurt's eyes.

"_Just stay strong,_

'_Cause you know we'll make it through,_

_We'll make it through,"_

And as the group moved in closer, Rachel and the tall boy stepping towards the blonde, she turned slightly and Blaine caught the moment where her shirt clung to her stomach slightly. His eyes widened as he realized. _She__'__s __pregnant._

"_There's nothing you can say,_

_Nothing you can do,_

_There's no other way when it comes to the truth,"_

The blonde girl was still fighting with her tears, and Blaine noticed Kurt standing on her other side. No matter what else was going on, his eyes kept being drawn back to Kurt..

"_So keep holding on, _

The jock reached down, taking both Rachel and the blonde girl's hands. Everybody was now singing to the blonde girl who looked like she was on the verge of losing it completely.

'_Cause you know we'll make it through,_

_We'll make it through."_

The group stepped apart and while everybody else lowered their heads, the blonde girl's head was raised, fighting back her tears. She gasped for breath before swallowing heavily and ducking her head, and Blaine could see she'd lost her fight.

A second later, the entire group were converging on her. Kurt was the first, wrapping an arm around her comfortingly. He saw Alex move to turn off the microphones, but Blaine held out a hand. "Wait a second."

And then Kurt spoke. "It's okay, Quinn. We've got you."

The girl dropped to her knees and the rest of the group were around her, offering their support. Blaine nodded and Alex clicked off their microphones as a teacher walked up on to the stage, parting the group to kneel in front of the blonde girl - Quinn. She looked up and nodded, before standing, supported by the tall boy.

As the group left, Blaine shook his head slightly before turning to find Alex staring at him knowingly. "You're so into him," he teased.

"I actually wasn't watching him that time." Alex elbowed him lightly. "Okay, I was. But not as much - I was much more focused on Quinn."

"Quinn?"

"The blonde girl."

Alex snapped his fingers. "The one who was crying?"

Blaine nodded. "It took awhile, but I realized she's pregnant."

"Wow." Alex let out a low whistle. "Guess that explains the song."

As Alex packed up the equipment, Blaine stood and leant against the edge of the control room, staring down onto the stage. Without even knowing the people, he was somehow getting into the heads of the McKinley group, something he could easily use against them.

But Blaine knew there was no way he'd be going back and telling Wes about what went down today. Because he knew why Quinn was so upset, and he knew why Kurt had been the one to comfort her. He knew how it felt to be the underdog, the minority and the hated. And he just hoped that the girl realized what kind of club she had behind her.

* * *

><p>"<em>We should tell Quinn you were there. She'd probably flip."<em>

_Blaine shook his head, stroking Kurt's hair idly. "She's finally warmed up to me, I'd rather not set her against me by letting her know I stalked her and found out she was pregnant. I'm guessing that was the first time any of you guys found out too?"_

"_That week, yeah." Kurt leant into Blaine, rubbing their cheeks together lightly. "Pretty interesting time for Glee club, but then things were always interesting for us."_

"_You don't say."_

_There was a moment of comfortable silence before Kurt elbowed Blaine lightly. "So, didn't pay as much attention to me that time, I notice," he teased. Blaine simply stuck his tongue out in response. "What, was I not good looking enough that time?"_

_Blaine snaked his other arm around Kurt's waist, pulling him onto his lap fully. "You're always gorgeous, you know that," he murmured, kissing Kurt lightly on the lips. Kurt hummed lightly against his mouth before pulling away slightly._

"_Tell me more?"_

_Blaine sighed. "I shouldn't have started this, I can see I'm not even going to get to kiss you properly until you learn everything."_

_Kurt rolled his eyes, leaning in to kiss Blaine deeply. When he pulled away, Blaine was fairly sure he had gone cross-eyed. "There. Now tell me more?"_

_Blaine took a second to catch his breath, glaring as Kurt laughed. "Fine." He thought for a second, before remembering what came next. "Oh, hey, this one looked like a lot of fun..."_


	7. Fifth

**So unfortunately everybody has been knocked out of the competition. I think that partially might be my fault because I didn't specify that I won't be writing up every single performance New Directions does that Blaine could see. This is mainly because I can't always think of excuses for him being in the auditorium that wouldn't get old/strained. So I know Proud Mary was the next semi-public performance but I don't think Blaine could have been there.**

**But now this means that from here on, the competition is open to all again! So if you want to be in, send a review/PM/Tumblr message/tweet/smoke signal/however you contact me and let me know your guess for where Blaine is going to see Kurt again next chapter :)**

* * *

><p>"<em>... Oh, hey, this one looked like a lot of fun."<em>

"_Fun?" Kurt frowned. "You didn't watch us singing Proud Mary in wheelchairs did you?"_

_Blaine shook his head before stopping. "Wait... what?"_

"_I'll explain later. Hold on." Kurt pulled himself away from Blaine, lying back on the couch and patting the spot next to him. Smiling, Blaine lay down so they were facing each other. Kurt leant out, lightly touching Blaine's cheek with his fingertips. "Okay, go. Fun?"_

"_Fun. And a lot less stalkerish because I wasn't actually there…"_

* * *

><p>Sectionals was looming and Blaine was barely home for long enough to eat and sleep every afternoon before rushing back to school for practice. Just because the Warblers hadn't made it to Nationals in years didn't mean they had to be worked to the bone, but anybody who tried to bring this up was summarily shot down and threatened to be kicked out.<p>

Blaine had a plan. It was iffy, considering he was still one of the newer Warblers and really didn't want to do anything to jeopardize his place in both the group and at Dalton, but once he had breached the idea to a few guys and received nothing but positive backup, they had quickly spread the word - excluding a few select Warblers of course - and prepared to put it into action that afternoon.

Warbler practice was half an hour after their final lesson every afternoon on the premise that students could have time to visit their lockers or dorm rooms, confer with teachers and then return to put in a few solid hours of rehearsal time. Which was why exactly half an hour after Blaine's final class, he was settling down on the couch in his living room with Nick and Jeff beside him, identical smirks in place. "Think Wes is having a panic attack yet?"

Blaine chuckled, pushing away the twinge of guilt he felt. "Wes will probably be loving it. Being the only Warbler there will show his true dedication and he'll be leading the group in a heartbeat."

"And then punish us for bailing," Jeff chipped in, clearly still apprehensive about what they were doing.

Nick elbowed him gently. "And then realize that maybe we're overworked. If it got to the point where we had to come to Blaine's house because we'd be caught in the dorms, then clearly they're doing something wrong. Practice is fine and all but I haven't slept more than five hours in the past few nights and I'm dying."

His head fell to Jeff's shoulder at the end of that proclamation, the blonde chuckling and running a hand through his hair. "I'm here, aren't I? I'm sure they won't kick us all out, at least not right before Sectionals."

Blaine shook his head, smiling at the couple affectionately before picking up the remote. "Okay, we didn't boycott Warbler practice to talk about Warbler practice," he informed them, switching on the television set. "Let's make the most of our down time before we all get frantic calls and texts from the Council and Wes."

There was relative peace for a few moments while Blaine channel surfed before sighing. "Okay, afternoon television sucks. I think our choices are informercials, _Digimon _or _Yu-Gi-Oh!_"

"_Yu-Gi-Oh!_" the two said in unison and Blaine slowly turned to them raising an eyebrow. "It's a good show!" Nick said defensively. "I mean, the first season of it anyway. Once it starts getting all high tech and advanced, it loses focus."

"And then we start drawing parallels to -"

"Shh!"

"Hey, we're just forming our opinions, you don't have to agree but -"

"No, seriously, shut up a minute."

The two finally fell silent but Blaine wasn't sure whether they were irritated or not, his attention too taken by the advert that had just appeared on the screen. Obviously mattress commercials weren't something he avidly watched - unlike Nick and Jeff's apparent _Yu-Gi-Oh! _addictions - but it was quite a different story when the people featured in said commercial were members of the McKinley High New Directions.

The New Directions, including one Kurt Hummel.

Blaine was on the edge of his seat, not noticing his two friends watching him curiously. The group was standing in a line over two beds and that was when Blaine noticed they were all clad in blue pyjamas - a strange look for some of them but Kurt actually looked _adorable_, younger than Blaine had ever seen him looking -

* * *

><p>"<em>I knew that one was a bad idea, I looked about five."<em>

_Blaine chuckled. "Not five," he said slowly. "Maybe… eight?"_

_Kurt swatted at him half-heartedly. "At least the color looked good on me. Blue always brings out my eyes."_

_Blaine glanced down at Kurt's blue shirt - one of many the boy owned - and grinned. "Anything looks good on you."_

"_You're just sucking up to me because you said I looked eight."_

"_No, I'm sucking up to you because I love you."_

_Kurt rolled his eyes and gestured for Blaine to continue._

* * *

><p>The song - quite predictably so - was <em>Jump<em> and, surprise surprise, Rachel and Mr. Lead-Singer were course it wasn't uncommon for a show choir to keep the same lead soloists in for the competition season but Blaine just kind of really wanted to hear Kurt sing.

Speaking of Kurt, Blaine's eyes were seeking him out at every possible opportunity. The part of his mind dedicated to art was taking in the song, looking for possible weaknesses, breakdowns in harmony, anything that he could use to bring back to the Warblers - and hey, at least they could say they were doing something _useful _in their skiving off. But the rest of Blaine's focus was pulled to Kurt, catching his every move.

It was easy to tell who amongst the group did any kind of physical education too. The jocks could sing and move without getting out of breath but they lacked a certain grace that the cheerleaders had (though the Asian boy boy in particular threatened to pull Blaine's attention from Kurt with his dancing, he _had _to have had some kind of training). And the others just sort of ran between the mattresses, making up for their lack of finesse with their vocals, especially the dark-skinned girl who was belting out the high notes. Blaine was immediately reminded of a comment he had heard from one of the graduated Warblers about a 'park and bark' and stifled a grin.

But still, _Kurt._ The first time the boy had jumped and touched his toes midair, Blaine's eyebrows had raised to extraordinary heights and he had immediately added _gymnast _to his tentative list of Kurt's qualities because really, only the cheerleaders were able to do that sort of stunt that Blaine had seen. He looked like he was having the time of his life - they all did really - and when he popped up from behind the mattress with his arms in the air, Blaine allowed himself to grin because seriously, _so __cute_.

And then Kurt was backing between the two mattresses, beckoning a finger and Blaine actually _leant __forward _before catching himself, resting his elbows on his knees to try and make it look more nonchalant and not like he had just tried to follow a boy he had never met into a television set.

Judging by Nick's snigger, he had failed.

"_Come on down to Mattress Land!"_

The next ad kicked in and Blaine blinked slowly a few times, trying to take in what he had just seen. "You know, Nick," Jeff said suddenly, making Blaine jump, "I suddenly feel the need to go and buy a new mattress."

"So do I," Nick replied, equally as thoughtful and Blaine finally turned to them with a glare. "I'm just not sure what it was that made me so… _enthralled_," he continued, clearly not deterred by Blaine in the slightest. "I mean, the singing was great but if I wanted singing about mattresses, I would go to the Council and convince them that the theme for Sectionals is mattresses."

"So what could it have been?" Jeff mused. "There were some very pretty girls but, well, nobody in this room likes very pretty girls."

"But people in this room _do _like boys," Nick concluded. "And there was one on there who was quite pretty, for a boy."

"He sure seemed to get Blaine's attention."

Two seconds of silence and then the two broke into laughter. "Okay, you've made your point!" Blaine yelled over the top of them, raising his hands in exasperation. "I just didn't expect to see Kurt on a commercial is all."

"Wait, _Kurt? _You know him?"

Well, things had just gotten _more _awkward now, and Blaine reluctantly explained how he 'knew' Kurt to the two highly amused boys. "Can you stop laughing?" he asked bitterly. "It's not like I intentionally tracked him down, I just keep seeing him and… well, you said it yourself, he's captivating."

"Hold on, they're a show choir?" Nick asked suddenly. Blaine nodded and the boy bent down, rummaging through his bag for a moment before pulling out the show choir rule book. "Don't even ask why I carry it," he said without looking up as Blaine opened his mouth to do exactly that. Jeff smirked and mouthed _I__'__ll __tell __you __later; __it__'__s __hilarious _just before Nick clicked his fingers. "That's what I thought. They could be disqualified for this."

"Wait, what?" Blaine resisted the urge to snatch the book from Nick's hands, panic rising. "What do you mean?"

Nick read for a few seconds, nodding to himself. "They can't accept payment or do paid performances otherwise it's immediate disqualification. And payment isn't just cash, it's any goods or services rendered for another service."

"Is that why we couldn't take those muffins from the nursing home performance?" Jeff asked, pouting slightly. "I guess that's a good thing in hindsight but that's not payment, that's delicious baked goods!"

Nick rolled his eyes. "So if they did that free, it's fine. I hope they knew."

Blaine nodded slowly, nervously. "I hope they did too."

* * *

><p>"<em>We didn't."<em>

"_You're kidding," Blaine said flatly and Kurt shook his head. "They paid you?"_

"_In mattresses. Which still counts, as you know. The good thing was that we didn't accept them, technically. In fact we didn't even know about them until Mr. Schue rocks up and tells us he can't come because he slept on one of the mattresses. I think that was just before Finn tried to punch out Puck and then bailed on us, making us drag Jacob in for the competition and then finding out that the other show choirs had stolen our songs."_

_Blaine gave it a few seconds to sink in before realizing it probably wouldn't. "I always knew you were all crazy."_

"_Were?"_

"_Still are," he amended._

_Kurt grinned at him. "I bet I know where the next one was."_

* * *

><p><strong>Go on, you all know too ;)<strong>


	8. Sixth

**Well, as you know, the competition was open as of last chapter to anybody who wanted to vote. And I couldn't have picked a more obvious chapter to open voting for… **

**In the running: _bumblebeelove, BrightandSparklyThings, Ehmber, Maz'KurtDougie, KiKiFliesDW13 Gleek, LiVeLaUgHlOvE24, Flossticle, Ravenscar275x, Ilovebookshowboutyou, Wintourr, Theatreotaku, CheshireTears, GleeWicked, starkidgleek1316, iWaldo, Stokes114, Kasumi the Stargazer, Number1KurtHummelFan, aunthay, JessicaJooney, ImaginaryTurtles, akatrixie, LightFaerie, afterahurricanecomesarainbow, xXLittle Rose AngelXx, writer3098, GleekHolly97, chrisielj, Kitalene, nikkkij94, whatabeautifulmess, Warblerette1125, The Ice Princess, Syaoran-Lover, BornLucky101 _(on a technicality but I'll allow it)_, LiveLifeWithLove, lunargirl40, Klainebowsmakemyworldrevolve, TrappedGenius _and_ belleblu13. _Phew!**

**Good luck everybody!**

* * *

><p><em>Kurt grinned at him. "I bet I know where the next one was."<em>

_Blaine smirked back. "Of course you do. Do you really think you could keep Wes from spying on the competition?"_

"_I thought the Warblers frowned upon spying?"_

"_Only when you get caught."_

* * *

><p>"Wes, we already lost. We're out of the running this year. Why do we need to go and see how well everybody else is doing?"<p>

Wes sighed, rapping his gavel loudly. Blaine hid a smile quickly as his friend looked his way, secretly wondering how long this gavel obsession was going to go on. Ever since Timothy had stepped down to focus on schoolwork and the Council had realized that they were out of upperclassmen, Wes had taken on the position with a vengeance. Technically, the boy hadn't been the oldest, therefore next in line, but David certainly wasn't going to stand in the way of his friend with a gavel in hand.

Blaine didn't blame him. He wouldn't either.

"Because these people will be our competition _next _year. It's never too early to see what we're going to be up against."

Blaine sighed along with three or four other Warblers and Wes raised the gavel again threateningly. "Can I jut make a point?" David chipped in quickly and Blaine raised an eyebrow, a little impressed at his friends bravery. "Of the three groups, none of them have competed in the last few years. There's a deaf choir, a choir for girls who are trying to stay out of juvie and this _New Directions _who we've never heard of before and at last count had five members."

"Actually they have enough now," Blaine said quickly. "I forgot to tell you guys."

"How do you know that?"

Nick sniggered and Blaine glared at him. "They did a commercial the other day," he explained, choosing the less creepy option which was miles better than _I sat in their sound booth and listened to them talking through their microphones. Oh, and one of them is pregnant. _"They've got the twelve they need but there's no spares so if anything happens to one of them - Wes, you're not _seriously _thinking -?"

"Of course not!" Wes said a little too quickly, looking appropriately scandalized as he lowered his gavel. "Warblers play fair after all, we don't go for dirty underhanded tricks no matter how easy it would be to knock somebody out just before the performance when there's no chance of finding a substitute. Anyway, all in favor of going to the Sectionals performance tomorrow?"

Despite his arguments, Blaine's was the first hand to shoot up and another dirty look was cast over to the corner as Jeff was the one to laugh. But both of their hands were raised, as were the majority around the room.

"Decided."

* * *

><p>"<em>I don't remember seeing you there."<em>

"_Were you looking for a school of blazer-clad boys?"_

_Kurt shrugged. "My subconscious might have been, but you're right. I wouldn't have thought much of it if I had and I think I was more focused on not throwing up. That was my first performance in front of a competition audience after all."_

"_You were brilliant," Blaine informed him immediately._

_Kurt rolled his eyes. "You mean when Rachel sang and I walked on the stage? Or when we backed up Finn and Mercedes singing 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'?"_

_Blaine pressed a finger to his boyfriend's lips. "You're always brilliant. Plus, do you really think I was taking notice of anybody else?"_

"_What about the other schools?"_

"_Definitely not as good as you."_

_Kurt grinned. "Good. Because they stole our songs."_

_Blaine's jaw dropped. "They - they _what_?"_

"_Coach Sylvester leaked our setlist to the other two schools. Mercedes had a solo with 'And I Am Telling You', we were meant to do 'Proud Mary' in wheelchairs like I mentioned earlier that I thought you'd seen, and 'Don't Stop Believing' was the first song we ever performed together as a group and the reason Mr. Schue stayed on so it was kind of our theme song. So we showed up at Sectionals one man down and with a setlist of songs that were stolen from us."_

"_That's -" Blaine shook his head and let out a low whistle. "And you still won?"_

"_What can I say? We're brilliant."_

* * *

><p>Blaine had actually noticed straight away that they were one man down the moment he finally located where New Directions were sitting - not an easy feat considering they were all wearing black. The tall guy was absent from the group but they still had twelve people, a curly head of hair making it clear that they had had a substitution.<p>

_I really hope that guy can sing._

There was something about the way the group was sitting that made the tension clear, even from seven rows back. The seating seemed structured, as if certain people had placed themselves as far away from others as possible and nobody was talking even though the performance hadn't begun yet. It was a bad sign for their first competition and Blaine winced a little, hoping they could pull it together.

Wes looked like Christmas had come early.

"Look at them!" he whispered to David loudly. "They look like they're ready to chew each other's heads off and - is that girl _pregnant?_"

"Wes, seriously," Blaine began, leaning over David to glare at the boy. "How would you feel if that was our team?"

"Well, no matter how much of a married couple Nick and Jeff act like, neither of them can get pregnant so I don't think we'll ever have that problem."

Blaine sighed and knocked David over the back of the head. "What I mean," he continued, "is that if the Warblers were struggling, the last thing you'd want is to know that other teams are judging you. It's already going to be hard enough for them, they're missing one of their lead singers and there's tension _and _it's their first time in this kind of environment. How about we actually support them?"

"They're the competition!"

"They're not _our _competition because we're not even in the competition." Blaine sighed again. "Look," he said, his voice softer. "I get you want to lead us to victory but we're already out for the year. Next year, be as competitive as you like. But right now we have no reason to knock down the other teams and if you show that you can support them, you'll get more rep as a potential permanent Council member for next year. So cool it off, stop letting the power get to your head and play nice."

Leaning bak in his seat, Blaine realized the entire Warbler row had silenced to listen to his speech and blushed, staring firmly ahead at the audience. Wes mumbled something under his breath then raised his voice so they could all hear. "Blaine's right. Let's study them as _potential _competition but we don't need to make judgements."

Nick leant over and offered his hand for a high five. Rolling his eyes, Blaine gave it.

The lights went down and every eye was immediately on the stage as the announcer introduced the Jane Addams school. As soon as it became apparent what the girls looked like, every straight boy in the Dalton group leant forward a bit in their seat and Blaine snickered, turning to shoot amused looks at Nick and Jeff.

As long as he didn't act the same way when Kurt was on the stage, he reminded himself.

The girls were good but not phenomenal, Blaine decided, and the rest of the boys seemed to agree with him. Singing _Proud Mary _in wheelchairs seemed a bit strange since they were all able bodied and in fact seemed a much better choice for the New Directions since they had one wheelchair bound student -

* * *

><p>"<em>Ah."<em>

_Kurt nodded. "Yeah."_

* * *

><p>But overall the performance was well presented and, depending on how things played out, it seemed like the girls might have a shot, especially since the next group to take the stage was a <em>deaf <em>choir.

The only thing Blaine hadn't quite accounted for was sentimental value and he found himself wiping away a tear with the others as the group awkwardly belted out _Don't Stop Believing_ - actually a perfect fit for them. Of course the singing was … well, _terrible_, but they had heart and it seemed to be winning the judges over.

But not New Directions.

A flash of movement caught Blaine's eye as Rachel stood, calling something out to the rest of the row and storming down the aisle. A few seconds passed and then Kurt stood, shrugging, and Blaine finally got to take him in.

Kurt looked _good. _Sure, he was dressed exactly the same as the rest of the guys (and much more toned down than Blaine was sure he was used to) but black looked good on anybody and Kurt was more than just an anybody. Blaine guessed that Kurt was the one to insist on the guys wearing ties as he was the only one not tugging at it uncomfortably or wearing it halfway down his chest. Overall, it looked good and Kurt looked good and Blaine was probably staring just a little too much. So he forced himself to take in the rest of the group as they passed by their row, noticing the worry on their faces and anger on a few.

Something had _definitely _gone down there.

And it seemed like things were still going down because not five minutes later, the teacher and the curly haired boy returned to their seats, just as the deaf choir were wrapping up their second song. Both seemed considerably more relaxed which was interesting considering there was only ten or so minutes before New Directions were to take the stage and right now they were down to eleven people if the fact that the curly haired boy was seated said anything.

Blaine was still silently rooting for them though. If anybody possessed the underdog spirit, it seemed to be this group and he knew so strongly how that felt, to pick yourself back up and keep fighting even when the world just wanted to throw you down. Even if it meant they would turn into a formidable competition for next season, Blaine wanted nothing more than to see them win today.

And then music began to play.

Blaine frowned, even as his mind immediately connected to the song. _No introduction? And nobody on the stage? _

A split second before the spotlight moved and the girl began to sing, Blaine remembered everything he had seen of Rachel and figured out what was more than likely happening.

_A dramatic entrance. Of course._

A voice came from behind them, belting out the opening lyrics to what Blaine had correctly identified as _Don't Rain On My Parade. _As they all spun to face her, Blaine noticed she looked confident and focused - the sign of a true performer but also something more, as if all of her worries had been taken off her shoulders. And Blaine knew that somehow they had been saved with a few minutes to spare.

How it had happened was yet to be learned but for then, Blaine just sat back and enjoyed the show.

And it certainly _was _a show. Rachel was one of the few people Blaine had heard who commanded the vocal poweress to take on _Don't Rain On My Parade_ and even had audience interaction - granted it was with her own Glee club substitute but still. It was a song worth performing and he had to truly respect why the girl was their lead female singer.

And then;

"_I'll march my band out!"_

And out they came with the jock in the lead.

Blaine sunk back into his seat, shaking his head. So whatever the problem was… had just been sorted? Just like that?

It seemed so. The final note was held, the crowd were on their feet (Blaine urging the Warblers to do the same) and Rachel was introducing New Directions. And then the jock (it would be _really _good if Blaine could learn his name at some point too) stepped forward a little and they began to sing _You Can't Always Get What You Want. _

It wasn't that it wasn't a good song or anything but Blaine had seen enough of the New Directions performances to feel familiar with what was going on - jock and Rachel would sing lead, the rest would back them up and Mercedes would belt out the high notes to end it all off.

Blaine was more interested in _Kurt_.

He was a part of the group, yes, but he also pulled focus in his own right. Whether it was the fact that he didn't look like the other guys or seemed to favor singing with the girls, there was something about Kurt that demanded attention. And whether he knew it or not, he was getting it from at least one person.

And now, more than ever, Blaine just wanted to see Kurt get a solo, a line, _anything_. Just so Blaine could truly put a voice to the face (no matter how much more of a stalker he would feel). But more than that, because it felt like Kurt _deserved _to get that solo, that recognition, that moment in the spotlight that it seemed Rachel was destined to get all the time.

Sure, they were only a new group, only just working out the kinks, but if a girl like Rachel wasn't put in her place, she would never be stopped. And yes, a group needed a leader but the leader didn't necessarily get all the solos. In fact, it was probably the worst thing to have.

But enough on that. Blaine turned his focus back to Kurt just as the group began their final song - _Keep Holding On. _

There was something different about this rendition though. The jock stayed a lot further from the blonde girl unless he absolutely had to and the choreography between them was stiff - nothing that the audience or hopefully judges would pick up on easily but for someone who had seen the first performance, it was clear as day. Part of whatever had broken down the club for awhile clearly involved these two and it wasn't sorted, whatever it was.

The group finished to a standing ovation and this time Blaine didn't have to guide any of the Warblers. It was clear that they had earned the applause.

* * *

><p>"<em>Did you guys stick around for the ceremony?"<em>

"_Of course. I already had my money on you guys winning."_

_Kurt raised an eyebrow. "How much exactly?"_

"_Um…" Blaine coughed lightly. "Well we all bet on you winning so we all kept our money. But congratulations though. I wish I could have said it at the time."_

"_I would have thought you were extremely strange but I'm sure I would have appreciated it." Kurt kissed him again. "I appreciate you much more now that I know who you are of course, even though I now know that a year and a half of stories I told you were completely unnecessary."_

_Blaine nudged him gently and Kurt rested his head against his shoulder. "I loved hearing them from your point of view though," he said quietly as one hand curved around Kurt's back. "Especially - oh yes, especially this next one. Probably my favorite ever."_

* * *

><p><strong>And mine. Mm. Definitely ;)<strong>

**Enjoy guessing and good luck! And please remember to only guess if you were successful this chapter. **


	9. Seventh

**Just a quick note on the competition. Please make sure if you are making a guess, you make it clear which one you are picking and only put one response in your review. If you put two or say that you are undecided and you'll choose later, please either have your PM inbox open or be prepared to no longer be in the competition unless you contact me via Tumblr.**

**Anyway, those currently in - _Wintourr, JessicaJooney, xXLittle Rose AngelXx, GleeWicked, LiVeLaUgHlOvE24, ImaginaryTurtles, akatrixie, TrappedGenius, Klainebowsmakemyworldrevolve, writer3098, Ilovebookshowboutyou, StarsUponTheBarricades, Ehmber, iWaldo, bumblebeelove, BrightandSparklyThings, Maz'KurtDougie, whatabeautifulmess, Theatreotaku, LightFaerie, chrisiejl, KiKiFliesDW13 Gleek, Stokes114, belleblu13, afterahurricanecomesarainbow, Flossticle, The Ice Princess, Ravenscar275x, aunthay _and_ SquirrelzAttack. _Good luck and remember to read into everything as well as you can, especially when it comes back to present day in the final section. There's always a clue ;)**

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><p>"<em>Oh yes, especially this next one. Probably my favorite ever."<em>

_Kurt cringed - actually cringed and buried his head in Blaine's shoulder. "You have got to be kidding me. How do you actually manage to get to these places?"_

"_Well this one might have been all Wes's doing."_

* * *

><p>"You follow the McKinley High Cheerleading <em>Facebook <em>group?"

Wes slammed the laptop shut but the damage was done. Blaine and David swapped identical smirks before advancing on their friend, taking a seat either side of him. "I had a girlfriend who was a potential cheerleader and even I didn't do that," David said, reaching over to open the laptop lid. "Oh look, he's in the photos. How surprising."

"And there's even videos, David, look! Isn't this _exciting?_" Blaine rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Wes, why?"

"I like cheerleaders, okay?" Wes said, dropping his head into his hands. "It's a normal straight guy thing, I shouldn't be made to feel ashamed of it. Besides -" and as Wes looked back up, Blaine realized he was smirking, "at least I don't _stalk _any of them."

Blaine steadfastly ignored his friend, leaning in closer to examine the page. "How convenient, a list of upcoming performances… _Madonna?"_

"Yeah, apparently they're doing this tribute thing at the moment," Wes explained. "I don't understand but it sounds like it'd be pretty cool to see."

"You totally just want to see the cheerleaders."

Blaine smirked but it quickly grew pensive. "As much as I agree, David, he has a point. I'm interested in seeing how a cheerleading group can interpret Madonna especially since it says _vocal performance… _hey, aren't a couple of those Cheerios also in their Glee club?"

A glance passed between the three of them and then David nodded. "What time's the performance?"

* * *

><p>"<em>You completely spied on us!"<em>

_Blaine raised his hands innocently. "Competition season was over for us, you know that. Plus, I really cannot be sorry for that, not after what I saw."_

_Kurt sighed. "Just get it over with."_

* * *

><p>It was getting to be an art form to sneak into the back of the auditorium and find seats up the back in the general rabble of an uncultured student body. David, no longer distracted by the presence of a girlfriend, was staring around the school in what appeared to be an abject horror because when it came to noise and disorder he was worse than Wes. Blaine was sure Wes would be in a similar state if it weren't for the simple presence of cheerleaders doing stretches, something that caught David's eye a mere second later. That event was apparently enough to melt the brain of any straight boy.<p>

Blaine, brain intact, found himself idly watching the crowd instead. Or at least he convinced himself it was idle crowd watching, taking in outfits whilst trying not to be blinded by an array of color that wasn't blue and red, examining people and just checking to see whether he might know anybody in the crowd.

No, he _wasn't_ looking for Kurt.

He did spot the blonde - Quinn - sitting down the front and blinked in surprise before remembering her pregnancy and that it would probably impact on any kind of cheerleading. That ruled her out for singing. Rachel was there too, sitting near the front with her arms crossed. The girl didn't look thrilled about being there and Blaine had to presume she had been coerced, perhaps as a form of Glee club loyalty. Which led him back to wondering who was going to be singing, which led him back to wishing he could hear _Kurt _sing which had kind of been the thought of the day since Sectionals. Or since he had seen him the first time.

The cheerleaders were gathering together now and clearly preparing for their number, an event that had every single male set of eyes riveted to them immediately. Blaine rolled his eyes (nobody noticed anyway because he wasn't a scantily clad girl) and settled further back in his seat, resigning himself to watching girls dance, hopefully at least backed by a decent vocal performance. He had spent the trip over debating with Wes and David over which Madonna number a group of cheerleaders could successfully dance to and they had broken it down to _Vogue, 4 Minutes _and _Open Your Heart_, each placing a bet on their song choice.

Blaine couldn't help but groan a little when the AV team began to blare _4 Minutes _over the speakers, prompting a small cheer from David. Blaine would have to pay him later but for now he was far more interested in finding out who was singing. The other two of the three cheerleaders from the Glee club were already on the floor with the rest but they didn't appear to be equipped for singing so Blaine had to rule them out. And the song really did call for a _guy _as well so… was the jock joining in? But joining who?

"_Hey!"_

Well _that _was familiar.

Blaine recognized the voice instantly as Mercedes, otherwise known the girl who could hit the killer end notes from Sectionals, otherwise known as the girl who had busted Kurt's window. He wasn't quite sure how he had found out her name but Blaine was more focused on the fact that this girl? Yeah, he wouldn't have pegged her as a cheerleader. And last time he had seen her, she hadn't been wearing the uniform.

So…. who was Justin?

"_Kurt Hummel, take it!"_

There was absolutely no way in the _world…_

Oh yes there was.

Blaine had seen Mercedes as she walked out, being on the side of the auditorium that she was walking towards. What he hadn't caught was the boy she was walking towards - the boy in a Cheerios uniform, flawless hair, a microphone wrapped around his head and a smile Blaine had embarrassingly melted over the first time he saw it.

That was _freaking Kurt Hummel_.

And not only was he in a cheerleading uniform that looked too damn sexy to be _legal_, he was about to sing and Blaine realized it a split second before Kurt opened his mouth and -

_Oh._

_Well._

There was nothing - _nothing _- his mind could think of that would even begin to express anything going on in Blaine's brain. He was stunned into stillness, probably with his jaw gaping open like a uncouth gawker but _dear god this was not even fair. _

This was everything he had wanted, but Blaine had not quite prepared himself for just how he would react when he finally got it.

It didn't matter that Mercedes was singing as well, flawlessly, or that the cheerleaders were performing stunts effortlessly behind them. All that truly mattered was Kurt and everything about him - the way he walked, the way he tossed his head, the expressions on his face, the winks, his _smile_, the way he _sang_…

Heaven was beautiful.

And finally, Blaine was getting to hear Kurt sing. Something else there was no words for because it was what he had anticipated but completely _not _at the same time. At any rate, despite his inarticulacy, the word _beautiful _continued to come to mind and Blaine settled on it even though it just wasn't enough to sum up what he was hearing.

Why the _hell _hadn't he been featured at Sectionals? In fact, why the hell had anybody else been on the stage full stop? Why hadn't it just been the _Kurt Hummel with the amazing voice _show and Blaine really needed to stop because his thoughts were borderline embarrassing at this point and thank god nobody else was ever going to hear them.

* * *

><p><em>Kurt sniggered.<em>

"_Oh hush," Blaine said, trying to hide the red flush creeping up his neck. "At least I'm being honest. I still get like that when you sing, you know?"_

_Kurt's smirk faded, softened. "Really?"_

"_Really."_

"_You're sweet." Kurt kissed him softly but pulled back, the smirk returning when Blaine whined at the loss of contact. "But continue."_

* * *

><p>All too soon it was over and Kurt was standing in the middle of the gymnasium, the lights beaming down on him. He was out of breath, sweat trickling down his face and staring at the group of people in front of him like he was in another world, like he had never thought he would be standing there as a <em>cheerleader <em>while people applauded him.

Blaine suspected he hadn't. But none of that took away from the absolute beauty of their performance. It was precise, skilled and talented and Blaine wouldn't be surprised if the two stayed on as cheerleaders after this because there would be a fight to get them away even if they wanted to. And Blaine was pretty sure that Kurt at least _didn't _want to go anywhere.

The group dispersed pretty quickly at the end of the routine and Kurt and Mercedes turned to each other, both beaming from ear to ear and talking quickly together. It looked like they were both on cloud nine, right up until Kurt's smile dropped and he said something to Mercedes who turned, both of them now facing their teacher who looked horrified. Clearly it hadn't been something he had known about.

Blaine had to admit to being a little confused - after all, he was on the soccer team and a member of the Warblers and neither group seemed to have an issue as long as practices didn't clash. But Kurt and Mercedes looked almost guilty as they walked across to talk to him and Blaine was hoping that they weren't going to quit. Not just because Kurt looked stunning in the uniform (after all, Blaine was probably never going to see him in it again) but because they had both looked confident and _happy_ and anything that made Kurt smile like that was something Blaine was behind.

And that was right about when Blaine had to catch himself and remember that he didn't know this boy and this boy didn't know that he even existed. He wasn't a part of Kurt's life and when things started to get borderline obsessive he definitely needed to take a step back, possibly making sure he kept as far away from McKinley as possible to avoid seeing Kurt again. As nice as it was to watch him, nothing was ever going to come of it and it would only make Blaine miserable.

It had been nice while it had lasted but it was time to stop.

Blaine leaned back in his seat, rolling his shoulders a little before freezing. A moment later he very slowly turned to the left, wishing he hadn't. A glance to the right yielded the same result and Blaine groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "Oh my god, don't. I didn't _know_."

"I swear he was drooling, Wes," David said over the top of Blaine's head conversationally.

"I bet Kurt would've found that so attractive if he had happened to look our way. Some random curly haired guy staring at him and _drooling_. Suave, Blaine."

Blaine closed his eyes against his hands, biting his cheek as he counted to ten. Then again. Then backwards. "Don't," he said finally. "I did not know he was going to be here, I did not know he would be singing, I did not know he was a cheerleader. I can not help the fact that I think he's attractive and a wonderful singer. Can we just leave it?"

His voice had risen a little towards the end and Wes and David both looked almost apologetic when he finally looked up. "Okay, consider it dropped," Wes said. "After all, we're even. I barely noticed you since I spent the whole time staring at the cheerleaders."

David leaned over for a high-five. "Weren't they _amazing_?"

As they left, Blaine allowed himself one final look at Kurt, promising that it would be the last.

* * *

><p>"<em>You gave up on me?"<em>

"_I was essentially stalking you!" Blaine sighed. "I felt weird about it," he admitted, his voice softer and he looked away from Kurt. "I was starting to think about you too much and I didn't even know you and you didn't know I existed."_

_Kurt rubbed at the back of his neck gently and Blaine sighed, leaning back into the touch. "So is that the end?"_

_Blaine shook his head. "After seeing that, I couldn't stay away. I tried but - well, you'll see when I tell you the next one. But seriously, Kurt? Now that I have the chance… you made an _incredible _cheerleader. You had the moves perfect and you sang so damn well and I couldn't get over how good you looked in that uniform. I mean it. If you ever considered cheerleading again, I would be all for it -" Blaine broke off, frowning when he realized what Kurt was doing. "Are you even listening to me?"_

"_Kurt, cheerleader, amazing singer, flawless body, guh," Kurt rattled off, waving a hand dismissively as he continued to flick through his phone. "Got it. This is what you really want to see though."_

_After getting past the initial shock of Sue Sylvester starring in a music video (and the hair good lord), Blaine realized exactly what Kurt was trying to show him. "Well," he said quietly after the video had ended (maybe a few minutes after and at least two minutes after Kurt had started smirking), "um -"_

"_Um?"_

_Blaine began to trail his lips up Kurt's neck with a near urgency. "Um," he agreed when he finally reached Kurt's ear and kissed his way haphazardly across Kurt's cheek until he reached his lips. "My boyfriend is super hot no matter what he does."_

"_Really?" Kurt asked dubiously. "What about when I cry?"_

"_Yes," Blaine said immediately. "Especially when you cry. I hate that things make you cry but you're one of those people who manages to somehow look completely beautiful when they're upset."_

_Kurt raised an eyebrow. "You were there, weren't you?"_

"_Oh yeah."_

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><p><strong>Good luck and thanks for reading!<strong>


	10. Eighth

**Still in the running: _bumblebeelove, Ilovebookshowboutyou, The Ice Princess, Stokes114, afterahurricanecomesarainbow, iWaldo, LightFaerie, GleeWicked, LiVeLaUgHlOvE24, SquirrelzAttack, belleblu13, writer3098, Theatreotaku, Maz'KurtDougie, KiKiFliesDW13 Gleek, akatrixie, TrappedGenius, whatabeautifulmess, Wintourr, xXLittle Rose AngelXx, Ravenscar275x, Klainebowsmakemyworldrevolve, StarsUponTheBarricades, Flossticle _and_ chrisiejl._**

**I'll do my best to get at least one more chapter out before I move countries because once I've gone and started uni, updates may slow due to a lack of internet plus the fact that I'll have to spend my time doing actual work. And for the record, if there is a delay in updates, it does _not _mean I have abandoned this story. **

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><p>For the record, he had tried. It wasn't like he had just caved or forgotten his promise to himself or give it a half-hearted effort. He had actually tried <em>seriously <em>hard on this one.

Actually, he had probably tried at this a lot harder than anything else in his _life_.

But there was no way that Kurt Hummel was leaving Blaine Anderson's mind.

* * *

><p>"<em>Oh good," Kurt said happily, grinning up at him. "I'm unforgettable."<em>

_Blaine rolled his eyes and pushed at Kurt to get him off his shoulder. "You're insufferable, that's what you are. I never should have started this."_

_Kurt pouted and maneuvered them so Blaine was the one leaning against him, refusing to let him go. "Would it help if I said I thought about you practically twenty four seven after I first met you at Dalton?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Then I shall lie to keep you happy."_

_Blaine sighed._

"_Hey," Kurt said, his voice soft. "You know I'm kidding. I was a little bit crazy about you from the minute we met and I'm now extremely curious how you managed to stay aloof for all of those months, but that's a story for another time. I want to hear this one."_

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><p>It didn't help that Facebook was readily available, an easy way to pass time and constantly open to the cheerleading page on Wes's laptop. Plus, Wes was more than happy to pass on details - <em>"Hey, Blaine, that girl sang a Christina Aguilera song and apparently it was awesome." "Hey, Blaine! They won at Nationals because Kurt sang a Celine Dion medley in French. French, Blaine!"<em>

That one had taken all of his self restraint to ignore.

But when Blaine found himself sitting in his final period on a Wednesday afternoon - study hall - and realized that he had been reading the same word in his textbook for the past half hour, enough was enough. It was clear that making such a conscious effort to not think about and stay away from Kurt was making things worse and when it got to the point that it was affecting his schoolwork, Blaine needed to do something.

But what? He couldn't just show up at McKinley and follow Kurt around non-stop, nor did he have a good enough reason to introduce himself to the boy. Apart from the school he had no idea where Kurt hung out so there was no chance of accidentally running in to him somewhere else (though looking at Blaine's track record of accidentally running in to Kurt, he might have had a better shot than he had thought).

After spending the rest of study hall mulling it over, by the time the bell rang he had a plan.

Go out to McKinley one last time. Make a conscious effort to find Kurt without being spotted by him, just to see him. And then leave, and this time leave for good. Blaine could take that last memory with him, remind himself that they lived two completely separate lives and then go on with his.

Maybe it was a flawed plan - after all, what was to say that seeing Kurt 'one more time' wouldn't just make things _worse _in the long run - but Blaine needed to justify it to himself somehow. He needed to see this boy and would quite easily admit to himself that it was stalkerish and strange and if Kurt ever found out that he had been stalked he would probably never trust him _ever,_ but if there was another option, Blaine couldn't find it.

At least he wasn't trying too hard as he sat in his car, making his way back out to Lima.

There was a good chance Kurt would be gone already anyway, he rationalized as he turned into the familiar street, and parking a short way down from the school. It wasn't like Blaine had stalked him to the extent of knowing when their Glee practice was or what other extracurriculars Kurt was involved in, so this entire trip could have been a waste of time. And if it turned out that Kurt wasn't here, Blaine would take it as the sign it was and just go get coffee instead.

But as he walked into the parking lot, Blaine immediately noticed the Navigator from the car wash, identical except for the fact that this one had an intact front window. Clearly Kurt had gotten his car back, but more clear was the fact that Kurt was still here, along with a handful of other people. Maybe enough for Glee practice but not enough for any kind of sport team so at least Blaine didn't have to worry about any jocks trying to cause him trouble. It didn't even matter that he didn't go to the school, Blaine was sure they would be able to sense the gay on him and react.

The halls were slowly emptying and Blaine moved quickly and quietly, pretending to look interested in the classrooms any time someone noticed him. That way if somebody questioned his presence he could simply say he was a prospective student. McKinley was an interesting school anyway and Blaine was almost lost in his own thoughts when Kurt came rushing straight past him.

* * *

><p>"<em>You're kidding, right?"<em>

_Blaine shook his head. "Straight past me," he repeated. "About a foot away if my memory serves me right."_

_Kurt was staring at him wide-eyed, disbelief written all over his face. "That's impossible. I know I would have noticed you or at least remembered if I had seen you in my school."_

"_Well, honey, the thing is… you were a bit upset."_

_Kurt closed his eyes. "Oh. Yeah, no that makes sense. I don't think I would have been noticing anything."_

_Blaine brushed a thumb over Kurt's cheek softly, waiting for him to open his eyes again. "Do you need me to stop?" he asked. "You know what happened, you were there after all."_

"_I want to know how you got in, though. And then maybe an abbreviated version of the performance."_

"_Of course."_

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><p>Blaine had to follow and was already doing so by the time he made the conscious choice to. He quickly darted down the hall and peeked around the corner, just in time to see Kurt entering what he knew was the auditorium, via the back door.<p>

He had to act fast. Running now, Blaine was out of the building and round to the side of the auditorium to where he knew there was a balcony that led up to a vantage point just above the stage - he had seen it when he was doing the lighting last time. If Kurt had been preoccupied enough not to see him _right next to him_, then Kurt probably wouldn't be looking up any time soon.

Blaine was out of breath by the time he arrived and immediately silenced himself as he saw Kurt standing on the stage, pacing back and forth. An iPod was set up in a dock resting on the piano and just as Blaine was wondering what was going on, music began to blare out of it.

_Of course. Music therapy._

He recognized the song immediately of course, just as he knew from the last (and only) performance he had seen of Kurt's that he would pull it off perfectly. But again, Blaine just hadn't quite prepared himself for how beautiful Kurt's voice could sound.

There was _so _much passion in the words that Blaine actually found himself taking a step back as Kurt's voice rose higher and higher, clearly investing much more in the song than the actual performance. And when Kurt changed _June _to _Dad_, his eyes flashing with an overwhelming sadness that was catchable even from where Blaine was, he had his answer. Clearly something was wrong between Kurt and his father and Blaine's heart went out to the boy because he knew that there was often nothing worse than having that rift there.

He had to smile though when Rachel came up. Clearly Blaine wasn't the only one who had caught onto her diva ways.

And then a flash of movement caught his eye and Blaine noticed a man entering the auditorium, watching Kurt. Kurt hadn't noticed, too caught up in the song - and now he was _leaping _across the stage _holy wow _- but it didn't take Blaine long to catch the slight resemblances that led to only one conclusion.

This was his father.

Biting his lip, Blaine cast another glance at Kurt who was nearly finished with his song. This was a moment between him and his father and even if Kurt didn't know he was there or know who he _was_, Blaine shouldn't stay. But -

But it was so hard to pull himself away now, knowing this was the last time he was going to let himself come looking for Kurt.

_Just until the end of the song_, Blaine decided. It wasn't far away anyway, Kurt was clearly gearing up for that last note, and then Blaine would walk away and let them have their moment.

"_For me!"_

And there it was. With one final look at Kurt, a smile tugging at his lips, Blaine turned and walked back down the stairs. It was kind of awful that the last time he had let himself visit the boy had been when he was so emotional but the fact that Kurt's dad was there, not looking angry or upset, boded well in Blaine's mind and he decided - _hoped _- they were going to sort things out.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Blaine turned towards the carpark, walking around the other side of the building. As he neared the door that Kurt's father had entered through, he realized it was still open and, more to the point, a voice could be heard. It wasn't Kurt which led to only one possibility -

"- I will fight to the death for your right to love whoever you want."

Blaine stopped in his tracks.

No, he didn't know the whole story, or any of it for that matter. He didn't know whether Kurt's father had been accepting of him being gay or even _known _about it before now. He didn't know what exactly had set Kurt off and caused such a moving song and _- oh, _Blaine was pretty sure that was Kurt crying in there now too and that alone was enough for Blaine to start tearing up.

But no matter what it was, Blaine knew things had been sorted. Probably not fixed because nothing ever was and Kurt was probably still going to deal with crap every day he went to school because of his sexuality, but at least his father was there to look after him.

And now it was time for Blaine to let him go.

Smiling through his tears, Blaine headed off to his car.

* * *

><p>"<em>You cried?"<em>

"_You were crying. Of course I cried."_

_Kurt shook his head. "You are unbelievable," he said softly. "You didn't even know me."_

"_I knew enough," Blaine protested. "I knew you were a kind person, went through a lot of crap without losing who you were, sang like an angel and if I could have introduced myself then without it being weird I would have. I wanted to know you, Kurt."_

_Kurt just stared at him for a moment then leant in for a kiss which Blaine gave willingly, one hand moving to cup Kurt's cheek. It only lasted a second and then Kurt pulled away, resting his head against Blaine's shoulder, sighing lightly before he spoke. "I'm still struggling a little with the fact that all of those months that I felt like nobody ever noticed me, all that time I thought I was completely undesirable, there was someone who thought about me the way you did. And I have to say, I do wonder how much better my life would have been if we had met."_

"_I do too," Blaine told him. "I really do. Sometimes I kick myself for it, especially when I'd learned everything that was really going on in that time. But other times I know we were meant to meet on that staircase at Dalton because I don't think things would have turned out the same way. We both went through the things in our separate lives so when we met, we could be exactly who we needed to be so we could be together."_

_Kurt squeezed his eyes shut but he couldn't hide his smile. "You are so _cheesy_," he said with a groan. "But you're right too. You came into my life when I really needed you and if we had met earlier, I don't think I would have been in the right place to love you properly."_

"_And that's what matters. Because I wouldn't give your love up for anything."_

"_Neither."_

_Kurt's arms wrapped around him and Blaine held him tighter, knowing Kurt was remembering that time in his life when he was too afraid to be himself. And all Blaine could do was love him and show him that 'himself' was a beautiful person that Blaine Anderson would never trade for anybody._

"_Next story?" Kurt finally asked._

_Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Didn't I just say that was the last time?"_

"_Yes, but I know you. You didn't stay away."_

_Sighing, Blaine conceded. "Of course I didn't. Except this time it actually wasn't my choice. Wes caught wind of a certain rumor and who better to help than me?"_

* * *

><p><strong>When in doubt, blame it on Wes.<strong>

**Good luck!**


	11. Ninth

**I know there was a bit of a delay on this chapter but if you follow me on Tumblr you'll know I suffered a workplace injury over the weekend which has left me with only one arm working at the moment. I therefore had to type most of this chapter one handed which does take a long time. **

**I can't promise when my next update will be either as in just over a week I'm off to college with limited internet access. But I'll do my best. **

**Still in the running: _SquirrelzAttack, Ravenscar275x, The Ice Princess, LiVeLaUgHlOvE24, Ilovebookshowboutyou, KiKiFliesDW13 Gleek, Stokes114, xXLittle Rose AngelXx, writer3098, Theatreotaku, StarsUponTheBarricades, whatabeautifulmess, iWaldo, belleblu13, Maz'KurtDougie, LightFaerie, Wintourr, Flossticle, akatrixie and chrisiejl_**

* * *

><p>"<em>- Wes caught wind of a certain rumor and who better to help me?"<em>

"_You blame Wes for everything."_

_Blaine opened his mouth to interrupt then stopped. "You have a fair point," he said. "But this was entirely his doing actually, he just dragged me along because of my - ah, intimate knowledge of the school."_

"_I always wondered how you never got lost when you first transferred," Kurt mused before snapping his attention back to Blaine. "Okay, tell. How was I embarrassing myself this time?"_

* * *

><p>"He's actually <em>sulking!" <em>Jeff whispered in delight, shooting glances over the other side of the room.

"Poor baby," Nick added, clearly choking back his laughter. "I mean, he knew it had to end eventually, didn't he? But he refused to let himself believe it."

"Dreams don't last," Blaine concluded. "Poor, poor Wesley."

Wes shot them all scathing glares from his spot near the door and the three of them immediately turned away, not even caring how obvious it looked. Of course they were all great friends but Wes just made it too easy for them to make fun of him with his fixation on becoming Head Warbler. Blaine was pretty damn sure it was only 5% about the power and 95% about the gavel he had been eyeing up since day one.

That said, Blaine wasn't one to talk about fixations and Wes made that perfectly clear anytime Blaine got a little too caught up in the teasing by turning it back around with that one innocent little question;

"_So, how's Kurt?"_

The problem was, Blaine didn't _know_.

He had stuck to his word - that visit to McKinley had been his last and Blaine had made a conscious effort of keeping his mind off Kurt, knowing there was no other option. Slowly and painfully the boy was making his way out of Blaine's mind… that was, until one of his so-called friends felt the need to bring it up and remind him.

It wasn't like Blaine was harboring some secret crush or anything like the others seemed to think. He had just been fascinated with this boy who Blaine had not expected to come across his path and, instead of it fading away like it would have if it had been the one sighting, a series of coincidences had pushed their worlds closer with Kurt still not knowing who he was. And it had taken Blaine's intervention to make it stop, and this time he was sure that it was over. There was no way he was getting anywhere near Lima of his own free will in the next few weeks and by the time the Council forced them to attend Regionals, Blaine would be sufficiently prepared to face Kurt again.

And then there would be a whole summer of forgetting and coming back to Dalton as a sophomore and one in the running for solos too if Wes had anything to say about it. That was the focus and that was what Blaine's attention needed to be solely on - tuning up his voice and limited dancing skills for next year's auditions.

"Okay, listen up!" Oscar called out and Blaine could practically _feel _Wes pouting from across the room, especially when the gavel remained in its holster. "We received a tip off from a former Warbler who discovered what Vocal Adrenaline are working on at the moment to try and give them the edge for Regionals." He paused, clearly trying to build suspense even though half of the room didn't _care _since they were out of the running. "Lady GaGa."

Trent, a fellow freshman, snorted just a little too loud. "Good for them. At least we don't have to worry about that, GaGa isn't something we can do a cap- oh no, you're _joking_."

Oscar raised an eyebrow and Trent snapped his mouth shut. "While I am not saying this is something we _are _doing, I don't see any reason to rule out at least finding out what the competition are doing." Blaine resisted the urge to give Oscar the same line he found himself giving Wes at least twice a week - _they're not the competition if we're not competing against them. _"I'd like a couple of Warblers to go out to Carmel and see if they can't catch a peek at their rehearsal this afternoon, which, before anybody accuses us of foul play, is an open rehearsal. Since I know many are preparing for exams, I'd like those volunteers to be freshmen."

The word _volunteers _was a misnomer of course and they all knew it - someone had to step up. With a sigh, Blaine stood. "I'll go."

"So will we," Nick added, tugging a more unwilling Jeff to his feet. "Someone's got to keep Blaine out of trouble."

Oscar nodded. "Warbler Trent, I'd like for you to attend as well." Trent gaped at him but luckily (for himself mostly) didn't comment, instead nodded and hid his grimace until Oscar looked away from him and lifted the gavel. "Meeting adjourned. Good luck to you four."

The rest of the occupants began to vacate and Blaine turned to the other two boys with a raised eyebrow. "Well, looks like we're headed to Carmel. Either of you been?" Both of them shook their heads. "Oh. Um, great?"

"I have," Trent said as he fell into the chair on the other side of them. "My parents checked it out to see if I should go there instead of Dalton but once we saw their choir rehearsal we quickly decided on the safer option.

"Okay then. To Carmel we go."

* * *

><p>"<em>And you made it out alive." Kurt held out his hand solemnly. "Congratulations are in order. They didn't devour you."<em>

"_Hey, your Glee club survived!"_

"_Oh yes," Kurt said, seeming to finally make the connection. "That would explain the next sighting. Surprised to see them?"_

_Blaine shrugged. "You'd think so… but no. Not really."_

* * *

><p>There was a stunned silence by the end of the number, save the barked orders of the Vocal Adrenaline director below. All four boys were wide eyed, transfixed mostly by the bright red leather and one unanimous thought.<p>

_They cannot make us do that._

Finally Nick gave a low whistle and the spell was broken. "Uh, that was…" Jeff trailed off helplessly, waving a hand around.

"It was," Trent agreed, for once seemingly without a snappy retort. "What do we report back?"

A flash of movement caught Blaine's eye at that moment; an almost familiar flash of _brunette _movement -

"We tell the Warblers that whatever we got out of this was redundant," he said quickly, jerking his head in the direction of the two girls still seated at the other end of the gallery to them. "There's another school still in the competition with the same thoughts as us, therefore there's no way GaGa will still be a viable option by next year." The three boys still looked confused and Blaine sighed. "Those girls are from New Directions. No doubt they're going to do a number of their own."

"Do you think they'll make us spy on them too?"

Nick and Jeff both turned knowing expressions on Blaine who winced. "Let's hope not," he said, mentally preparing himself for the worst.

They didn't.

To say Blaine was surprised when the Council simply told them they had done a good job and moved on to the next point of business was an understatement. Shooting relieved glances at the other three, Blaine settled back into his chair and relaxed, knowing he was off the hook.

To say Blaine was surprised when Wes cornered him after the meeting and demanded Blaine get him into McKinley so they could spy was… well, completely untrue.

"No."

Wes crossed his arms, not breaking his stare. "Blaine, you probably know that school better than half of the students that attend. I need -"

"And that's it exactly," Blaine cut in. "You think you need to get this information so you can be on the Council next year -"

"_Head _of the Council."

"Head of the Council, when really you don't. So to do that you'll drag me along, risk getting me in trouble with no personal gain of my own and, more importantly, make me go to a place you know I said I didn't want to go to."

Wes sighed but his glare softened a little. "I wasn't going to make you come in, I just wanted directions to the auditorium. You can wait outside. Please?"

"Your puppy dog eyes suck," Blaine informed him, but the begging look didn't falter. "Fine. But just to the auditorium. And if we get caught then you take full blame and I really don't care what it does for your permanent record."

Wes beamed. "I owe you one."

"You owe me about _twenty."_

Rolling his eyes, Wes ignored him. "We'll go tomorrow. I imagine they also used today to return their intel and tonight to prepare their costumes."

"You do realize that not every show choir practices _every _day?" Blaine asked. "Some of them actually choose to have fun with it and not act like it's boot camp." Wes muttered something under his breath in response; catching the word _gavel _in there, Blaine decided it was best not to ask and turned away. "Tomorrow, after final period, by my car. As long as I haven't changed my mind by then."

"You won't."

He didn't.

In all fairness, Blaine was just as, if not more, curious about what the New Directions would bring to the table in a GaGa war. They had quite the mix of voices and personalities and any time Blaine tried to imagine them successfully pulling off any of her numbers he had to laugh.

It was the guys that brought it all down in his mind. Together the girls could probably pull together something that worked (as long as Rachel didn't get the lead vocals because yes, she _could _do GaGa but that didn't mean she should when her voice was clearly more suited to Broadway) but as soon as Blaine tried to imagine the males of the group in glitter and sequins singing about being freaks, that was it. It just didn't work for a group that was so all over the place.

Slightly concerned with how well he could analyze a show choir that didn't even know of his existence, Blaine shook his head and pulled into an empty parking spot as far away from any of the other cars as possible. "I still don't agree with this."

"You went to Vocal Adrenaline."

"Because the Council virtually ordered it."

"You've been here multiple times."

"Never with the intention of spying."

"You were last time -"

"Never with the intention of spying for _competition purposes_," Blaine corrected wearily and gestured for Wes to follow him to the auditorium. "I'm surprised you didn't bring your soulmate."

"David and I are not attached at the hip," Wes rebutted. "Besides, I think he's still wary of running in to Melanie here."

"I never said David's name."

Wes elbowed him and Blaine smirked, pushing open the door to the stairwell. "Okay," he whispered. "I can't hear anything but they could be setting up or something. I'll take you to the top and then wait down here."

The two boys crept up the stairwell to the balcony Blaine had been in not a few weeks ago, near brought to tears. Pushing away the memory, Blaine led Wes out and stopped, allowing him to move ahead to the railing. "So you should be able to see everything from up here, presuming they have a rehearsal today - did you seriously not have a source here that could have told you? You said you had sources everywhere, I do recall."

"That would be you."

"I am _not -_"

Wes spun and shoved a hand over his mouth. "They're here."

A flash of pink caught Blaine's eye and that was it; there was _no_ way he was thinking of waiting this one out downstairs.

Of course it made sense for each of the girls to base their costumes on their own personality types - and it was just the girls too, clearing up that issue in Blaine's mind. The pink concoction belonged to Quinn, the goth girl was wearing a daring bubble outfit that Blaine knew Wes would be eyeing up without having to look at him, and Rachel -

_Dear god, my eyes._

But there was a person Blaine didn't recognize, standing with their back to the balcony. Wearing a near perfect representation of GaGa's blue _Bad Romance _outfit with heels like Blaine had never seen before, that was one brave -

_Boy._

Because the second the vocals began and the person in blue began to sing, Blaine knew. There was no mistaking that voice, no matter what number he was belting out.

_Damn it, why can I never escape Kurt freaking Hummel?_

* * *

><p>"<em>I'm sensing a little resentment here darling," Blaine said, a hint of laughter in his voice as he stared at Kurt who was, once again, on the other side of the couch. "Come on, don't be like that. You know what I meant."<em>

"_I know you were spending a lot of time avoiding me and waiting impatiently for the summer so there was no chance of having to see me again."_

_Blaine started, horrified when he realized there was actual hurt in Kurt's voice. Kurt was looking away from him but Blaine could tell his eyes were squeezed shut with the effort of keeping it together and as far as Blaine had known it had all just been an ironic and kind of funny story so where had it all gone so wrong? "Kurt, hey, come on, you know it's not like that -"_

"_It _was_."_

"_I want you to look at me," Blaine said calmly because serious conversations always had a few ground rules in their relationship and eye contact was a must. "Kurt, I guess I haven't explained this properly but I honestly thought you knew me better than that. I never avoided you because I didn't want to see you or spend time with you - not now, not ever, not even when you didn't know I existed. I tried to avoid you because I knew I was getting attached to these glimpses of you -"_

"_And what's wrong with that?" Kurt asked suddenly, his voice quiet but sharp. "What would have been so wrong with actually liking me, in a time when everybody else hated me? It would have been so nice to know that you were actually happy to see me but no, you just wanted that distance as much as everybody else, couldn't bear to let yourself like someone like me and I can't work out how that actually changed."_

_Blaine waited patiently until Kurt was done and for a few seconds after. "Finished?" he asked, not quite able to keep the bitter sting out of his voice and Kurt's eyes widened as he heard it. "I'm trying not to get angry but Kurt, seriously, when in this story have I said I didn't want to know you? The main thing I wanted this whole time was to _know_ you, but I didn't, and I couldn't without making things strange and confusing in a time that already was all of that for you. And without knowing you properly, knowing more than just the way you sang and the brief glimpses I got of you, I was beginning to form this connection to someone I actually didn't know at all."_

_Kurt was getting it, Blaine could tell. "Blaine -" he began softly but Blaine shook his head, holding up a hand. He needed to get this out. _

"_Think of it like a celebrity crush - you know of them and their talent but you don't really know them. It's not viable and it wasn't something I wanted for me or for you because it just wasn't fair on either of us. I was liking this person I created you to be, this person who I'd never met and who might not actually be who I thought he was. That was creating something that was going to end badly for me and something that, if I ever did meet you, would put an unfair expectation upon you to be someone who you might not have been." Blaine sighed and leaned his head back against the couch. "I guess I never made that clear," he finished, closing his eyes. "I think maybe we should st-"_

_His words were abruptly cut off at the same time as the air to his body, both caused by Kurt's arms wrapping tightly around him. "I'm sorry," Kurt breathed into his shoulder. "You're right, I didn't think - I understand, I really do, I should have gotten it earlier. Of course you were right. How can I make it up to you?"_

"_You understand?" Blaine asked. Kurt nodded, his head still buried into his shoulder. "Then everything's fine. I get why you were upset around it, especially when it was happening around this particular time. Just know that I had both of our best interests at heart in what I was trying to do."_

_Kurt lifted his head and Blaine kissed him. "You can keep going," Kurt said without needing to ask. "I want to hear your thoughts on this one."_

_Blaine gave him one more look then nodded. "Okay."_

* * *

><p>"I do notice you haven't left."<p>

Blaine didn't even bother with the customary glare. "You've got this going on below you and _that's _what you choose to notice?" he asked dryly. "This is unreal. Way better than Vocal Adrenaline delivered."

"Seriously?"

The surprise was understandable - when the Warblers had gone up against Vocal Adrenaline they had concluded that they were the best. "Yeah," Blaine said, raising an eyebrow when Quinn began to sing. It was the first time he had heard the girl and she was actually pretty damn good. "I think it's their use of individuality. Vocal Adrenaline are the masters of group numbers which is why we couldn't beat them, but these guys have such a versatile group with so many different areas of talent."

"That's their advantage," Wes agreed. "But will it be enough?"

Blaine shrugged and leaned a little further over the railing, taking it in.

For once, it seemed that everybody had a part instead of Rachel dominating the stage - in fact, she didn't appear to have a solo of any type. The Latina girl actually looked like she was dominating the stage and Blaine had to resist clapping when she belted out her solo.

But after focusing on everybody else for as long as he could, Blaine had no choice but to finally turn his attention to Kurt.

He had just never seen anything _like _it. Sure, Blaine had a healthy interest in _Vogue _and had seen a small glimpse of what Kurt's outfits had potential to be, but to see a teenage boy dancing around a stage in _ten inch bedazzled heels_ was still throwing him for a loop; not just that Kurt appeared to be voluntarily wearing them but that he could _balance. _

As the song drew to a close, the seven of them dropped into poses and Blaine, once again, resisted the urge to clap. Others did, however, and Blaine started before realizing it must be the rest of the guys. _I wonder why they didn't join in_, he mused before jumping again at the click of a camera going off behind him. "Wes!" he hissed.

Wes tucked his phone away, blinking at Blaine innocently. "Intel," he explained. "It's not like I taped the performance or anything, I just wanted to get costume ideas."

Blaine shook his head and gestured for Wes to walk down the stairs. "You do realize we got nothing useful out of that, right?" he asked when they were back outside. "There was one male costume and I'm pretty sure if I can't work those heels, none of the Warblers can."

Wes shrugged. "We got something at least."

"What's that."

"We are _never _doing GaGa. Pink is so not my colour."

After a second of stunned silence Blaine snorted and followed Wes back to the car.

* * *

><p>"<em>You know, I still have those heels."<em>

_Blaine blinked at him, uncomprehending. "You mean you're planning to wear them again?"_

"_Maybe," Kurt said, shrugging. "I'd need the perfect occasion. But no, what I was getting at is that I don't think you're as uncoordinated as you think."_

"_No!" Blaine said immediately. "Kurt, I love you but you are not getting me in those shoes." Kurt just stared at him with the knowing look he got when he knew he was going to get his way. "There's still stories to tell," Blaine ventured. "Surely you want to hear those first?"_

_Kurt rolled his eyes with a fond smile. "Okay honey," he said. "Go right ahead, I'll just work on remembering where I stored the shoes."_

_Blaine groaned. "Right, right. I'd prefer a repeat of the next performance more than this one though. It kind of blew my mind…"_


	12. Tenth

**PLEASE READ: This will be the last chapter I post before I leave for New Zealand. If you have been reading my other authors notes, you will know that I will now be on a very limited updating schedule due to less time and lack of internet. I can't predict when I will have the next chapter up _at all_. Please, from one reader of stories to another, please don't continually ask for the next chapter or when it will be up. I've been getting that a lot over both of my WIP's in the past few days and it does get a bit frustrating. I am a human being with a life and that life does matter more than writing FanFiction. I also hate posting notes like these because I feel like I'm being too mean, so please let this be the last one.**

**Still in the running: _chrisiejl, Stokes114, Ravenscar275x, belleblu13, xXLittle Rose AngelXx, akatrixie, writer3098, LiVeLaUgHlOvE24, The Ice Princess, StarsUponTheBarricades, Maz'KurtDougie, LightFaerie, Wintourr, whatabeautifulmess, KiKiFliesDW13 Gleek, Ilovebookshowboutyou, iWaldo, Theatreotaku _and_ SquirrelzAttack_**

* * *

><p>"<em>... it kind of blew my mind."<em>

_Instead of the usual groan, Kurt actually grinned almost wickedly. "Glad to hear it. Apparently nobody had quite anticipated that, especially not our esteemed visitors, who I presume you got your information from?"_

_Blaine raised an eyebrow. "If you want to put it that way."_

"_How did you get a mole into Vocal Adrenaline anyway?"_

"_That, my dear, is an excellent question."_

* * *

><p>"How did we get a mole into Vocal Adrenaline anyway?"<p>

Wes shrugged, adding sugar to his coffee. "I don't think it's possible."

"Then where do we get our information?" David asked, taking a seat across from them. "I mean, we can't just make it up, it's actually true."

"Oh, someone definitely knows," Wes agreed. "Whether it's one of our Warblers infiltrating or one of them sharing the information, I don't know."

Blaine and David swapped amused looks before plastering mock horror over their faces. "Wes doesn't _know?_" Blaine gasped out, putting a hand over his heart.

"But - but - everything I know is a _lie!" _David wailed, collapsing dramatically onto the table and just missing Blaine's coffee cup.

Wes managed to kick them both at the same time.

"Seriously though," Blaine said when they had all settled back into near-normalcy, "I'm really curious about this. Do you think we can test it?"

"How?"

"Ask for information," Wes suggested. "At the next meeting we'll ask what Vocal Adrenaline are up to and see if the Council will actually call out the mole."

"And if that fails, Wes can just suck up to Oscar even more."

Wes bristled up. "I do _not _-"

"You've bought him coffee every day this week," David cut in wearily. "Either you're dating - which Jessica will not be pleased about - or you're trying to get his position next year. Which you already _have_."

"And don't argue with that," Blaine said quickly as Wes opened his mouth to do just that. "You've already run the Warblers while they were busy and you're guaranteed to be called in as soon as they're in exams again. Plus, it's _our _vote that gets you there and nobody's stupid enough to vote against you, Wes."

"Trust us," David concluded. "You'll be Head Warbler before we know it."

"Well, what do you know?"

"Apparently not much," Blaine said, shooting David a confused glance, the boy smiling apologetically from his seat to the right of Wes. "Did we miss the voting?"

The question was left unanswered, however, as Wes rapped the gavel to begin the meeting. Blaine could actually see the joy on his face at being able to do so and sighed, knowing they were in for a long year next year. "Warblers," he stated in his most official voice, "I know you weren't expecting to see what appears to be a fully fledged Council but with the Senior students out on examinations, they decided it was time to hand over the reigns, only to find that there are only four of us Warblers who are currently Juniors. And since Anthony is leaving us at the end of the year, it was determined that, unless a younger student tries to challenge it and claim they would be a better fit, this will be the Council for next year."

And nobody was stupid enough to do that, Blaine already knew, not with the way Wes was gripping that gavel like he would knock out anybody who tried to take it from him. Besides, they all did have to agree that the three boys in front of them were the best suited for the job, even if Blaine didn't know Thad all that well.

"Now, to the first order of business. Regionals is coming up -"

"But we're out of the running!" Trent called out and a few other Warblers raised their voices as well, apparently deciding the Council was stupid.

Blaine also decided that the gavel had never been used with quite that much force before. "I will have order!" Wes demanded and the room fell silent again. "I am aware that we are not competing this year since I _was _there when we lost at Sectionals. But, as we have been doing for the past few months, determining what the other show choir teams are practicing and performing always helps to give us an edge for next year."

Knowing where Wes was headed with this, David took over. "As you know, we lost to Vocal Adrenaline, as has every other group who has gone up against them for the past four years. Therefore, naturally the best place to go to find out what we should be doing is to them."

"Unfortunately, the former Council -" and oh how Wes clearly _loved _saying that, "- didn't leave us with any information about their mole inside Vocal Adrenaline, we are struggling to find a way to gain our information. So as our first act as Council, we are asking the mole to step forward and -"

"What are you talking about?"

Thad had leaned forward to stare at the two boys and, once again, the room fell completely silent. "The mole in Vocal Adrenaline that informed the Council on what they were doing?" Wes said after a few seconds.

Thad actually snorted at that. "Mole?" he said incredulously. "I guess if you want to put it that way… _I'm _the mole."

* * *

><p><em>Kurt gasped. "You mock us sir!"<em>

"_You are my favorite person," Blaine informed him, then proceeded to show him._

_Kurt finally broke away, laughing. "Okay, we've got plenty of time for that later. Tell me about Thad the Mole!"_

"_You're never going to see him the same way are you?"_

"_Never ever."_

* * *

><p>A speechless Wes was always amusing but finally David had to take control of the conversation. "Okay, so you've been delivering information. If you object to mole, how would you explain it?"<p>

"An older sister who goes to Carmel," Thad said as if it were obvious. "Christina doesn't tell me what they're doing but when I can hear the same songs on repeat from her room every night, it's kind of obvious that she's practicing choreography."

Trent stood calmly and raised his hand, waiting for Wes to acknowledge him before exploding with, "So we had to go and spy at Carmel and you could have just walked across the _hall _and found out?"

"I couldn't have. For one, she doesn't bring the entire group or their costumes home with her and that's really what we wanted. And would you seriously expect me to spy on my sister like _that_?" Thad raised an eyebrow as if challenging Trent. "There's a difference between hearing it and actually going looking. How would you feel if she went into my room and found our setlist and gave it to Vocal Adrenaline?"

Wes raised a hand to forestall any further arguments. "Okay, I think we have what we need from this conversation. Warbler Trent, take a seat. Thad, I know you won't actively spy but do you have any information that we could use?"

Thad was all smiles again at that. "Yeah, I was going to bring it up as a point of order when I got the chance. It turns out that there's a bit of a grudge between the leads of Vocal Adrenaline and New Directions, that group from McKinley in Lima. A certain Jesse St. James apparently transferred to mess with one Rachel Berry before leaving her humiliated and their Glee club secrets wide open."

Blaine wasn't the only one to shake his head at that - sure, you did what you could to win but you _never _sabotaged someone else, especially not when it came to true feelings of the heart. That was just a no-go zone. "What's that got to do with us though?" Nick finally asked. "That just kind of secures a Vocal Adrenaline win."

"New Directions are fighting back."

Blaine groaned quietly because he just _knew _where this was going. After all, there was only one way that show choirs fought back;

"They're doing a performance for Vocal Adrenaline on Friday afternoon to apparently show them why they can't be beaten at Regionals. Their secret weapon that Vocal Adrenaline doesn't possess."

All eyes turned to Wes but it was actually David who broke the silence.

"Oh my god, we _have _to crash it!" he blurted out before clearing his throat quickly, clearly having anticipated Wes's glare. "I mean, all in favor of - ah, attending the New Directions performance on Friday?"

Most of the hands went up. Blaine's was not one of them.

It wasn't just the group they would be spying on but the actual act of spying itself. He had felt guilty for days after allowing Wes in to watch the GaGa performance and they hadn't even gotten anything useful out of that. To visit this performance which was basically giving away the secret McKinley used _to win_ was another story and Blaine just couldn't allow himself to be comfortable with it, even when he knew Vocal Adrenaline were going to be there.

But as the vote passed and plans were beginning to be made, Blaine knew he had no choice. Warblers stuck together and when it came to sneaking a group of blazer-clad boys into an auditorium, Blaine knew he would have to be there.

* * *

><p>"<em>You actually were not all there."<em>

_Blaine just raised an eyebrow. "Who exactly is telling the story?" he asked. "Trust me. We were there."_

"_Every single Warbler?"_

"_Well, no." Kurt grinned, clearly accepting his victory until Blaine went on. "We didn't have the Seniors and hadn't taken in our new round of to-be freshmen so there were actually only about ten of us."_

"_That's still a lot of blazer-clad boys to sneak in."_

"_It would help that they weren't blazer clad." Blaine nodded solemnly at Kurt's exclamation of surprise. "That's right. I managed to convince the Warblers not to wear their blazers."_

_Kurt pretended to faint._

* * *

><p>"I actually can't believe how much effort is going into this."<p>

Blaine sighed. "I know. But if I don't help them out it's a mark against me, plus Wes has blackmail on me."

Alex raised an eyebrow, turning his head a little to look at Blaine seriously. "Blackmail?"

"Not like that," Blaine assured him. "Just the whole Kurt thing. He promised he'd forget about it if I got the Warblers in. Plus," he added, a little sheepishly, "I'm actually pretty interested in seeing what they've got that they think could take on Vocal Adrenaline, so it's not that much of a hardship. Thanks for helping us out."

"Hey, a job's a job. And I like the McKinley gig, they've got a great system in there."

As Alex pulled into the lot, David's car load were just climbing out. Trent followed behind with a couple of the other boys and before long, they were all assembled in the parking lot. "Okay," Wes said, picking at the plain blazer he was wearing, clearly uncomfortable without his uniform. "We're following Blaine's lead today. If anybody gets caught and questioned, do _not _give away which school you belong to."

"In other news, this isn't actually a huge secret spy mission," David took over, ignoring the glare from his friend. "So don't get caught, but don't panic if you are. But unless we want to miss the actual performance we came from, let's listen to Blaine."

The entire group turned to Blaine who in turn checked that Alex was waiting and ready. "Three of you are going to go with my brother, Alex. He'll be running the sound and the booth is dark enough that you won't be seen. Another three will follow Wes up the side staircase to a viewing balcony on the left, the rest will follow me to the identical right side balcony. We shouldn't be spotted but obviously don't take advantage of that - keep your voices down and no falling off the balconies or anything like that."

Unsurprisingly, it was Trent, Nick and Jeff who followed Blaine, the latter whispering to each other until Blaine glared at them. He wasn't as invested in the 'mission' as the others but still didn't exactly want to be caught at a high school that wasn't his own, halfway up a hidden stairwell and dressed for spying. It just wouldn't end well.

Blaine could hear voices from the stage and figured that the performance was starting. "Quickly," he whispered and the four hurried up the last few stairs and out onto the balcony, just as the music began to play. They didn't even have time to identify the song or the presence of Vocal Adrenaline before Kurt began to -

_Woah._

Blaine gripped the railing, staring wide-eyed down at the stage before him. An overwhelming sense of deja vu hit him but somehow that wasn't the right sensation; yes, he had stood in this spot before and been stunned by Kurt's singing but never like _this_.

"Funk," Trent whispered.

Technically, yes. And Blaine could understand immediately why this was the perfect weapon to use against Vocal Adrenaline (he would have made comments earlier about their fabled lack of souls but with Thad around, it was a little touchy), but his mind was still self destructing, even though Kurt had stopped singing.

He was a _countertenor_. How could he do _that?_

None of the boys with him understood, never having heard Kurt sing alone, but Wes and David were on the other balcony and Blaine knew they were having the same revelation as him.

If Kurt alone had that much versatility in his voice, there was almost no limit to what they could do; and judging by the performance the rest of the group were putting on, not a single one were limited to just one genre. Add to that the revelations from the GaGa performance about their individuality and that was it. That was their secret weapon.

With this, united as a group, they could beat Vocal Adrenaline. And they could beat the Warblers.

There was no guarantee, of course. It all depended on the day, the group, the performance, the competition. There was always more to show choir than just the singing talent of the group. But this one performance cemented it for both Vocal Adrenaline and for the Warblers that New Directions were formidable opponents.

And Kurt Hummel had one _damn _talented set of pipes on him.

* * *

><p>"<em>I quite like this awed side of you."<em>

"_Hey, I'm your biggest fan normally, aren't I?"_

_Kurt grinned. "Well yes, but now I know where it stems from."_

_Blaine just shook his head and stretched. "We should take a break. I think it's about lunch time."_

"_Are you trying to avoid telling me an embarrassing story?"_

_Blaine shook his head, standing up and holding out a hand for Kurt. "Just hungry." Kurt took the offered hand and Blaine tugged him to his feet, Kurt's arms wrapping around his neck when they were both standing. "Mm, hi," Blaine murmured, happily leaning in to kiss his boyfriend, something which Kurt clearly had no objections to. _

_This time Kurt didn't pull away and Blaine was just about ready to pull him back down to the couch when his stomach grumbled, causing them both to laugh. "Okay, point taken. Food, then more stories. And, if I'm not mistaken, this might be the last one for the year."_


	13. Eleventh

**It's a couple of days before I start class, my roommates are making it near impossible to enter the near vicinity of where they are lest my brain explode, and I was feeling the withdrawal. It's short but hopefully sweet and Warbler-y and cracky.**

**Still in the running (as far as I've noted anyway, hopefully I didn't lose any emails in the few days I was away): _LiVeLaUgHlOvE24, Ilovebookshowboutyou, iWaldo, xXLittle Rose AngelXx, Theatreotaku, KiKiFliesDW13 Gleek, Wintourr, chrisiejl, whatabeautifulmess, akatrixie, StarsUponTheBarricades, The Ice Princess, LightFaerie, SquirrelzAttack _and_ writer3098. _At this point with only a few chapters left, I should probably start thinking about some kind of prize...**

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><p>"<em>Satisfied?"<em>

"_Yeah."_

"_Good. More stories."_

_Blaine shook his head fondly, staring down at Kurt who had settled himself back in against his side. "You're like a dog with a bone."_

"_I prefer cat," Kurt said, stretching a little to make his point. "But you started it so hush up and talk."_

"_I can't really do both."_

_Raising his eyebrows innocently, Blaine waited out the glare before finally relenting. "Okay, you totally know where I was and you know what happened there better than me. I actually just about missed you guys anyway."_

* * *

><p>"A show choir competition <em>can not <em>be this popular."

Wes's hand inched towards the car horn again but Blaine, anticipating it, grabbed his arm before he could vent his frustration. "It's not going to do any good," he pointed out, very reasonably. "They can't exactly move either."

The 'they' in question appeared to be the entire population of Ohio who had all decided to vacate their home town for one day, all along the exact same road that the Warbler contingent were taking in an attempt to get to Regionals. Thankfully they weren't the ones performing but after the trip was over, Blaine was going to take out each of the four others he was stuck in the confined space with, slowly and painfully.

He had (of _course) _managed to get himself stuck with Wes, who was torn between abusing the traffic and talking incessantly about what he could be spending his time doing (with extra Warbler practice high on the list) instead; Trent, who had decided to spend the entire time they had been roadblocked on the phone to Thad comparing notes on who was moving the fastest (neither); and Nick and Jeff who were alternating between trying to win the award for cheesiest backseat couple and annoying the hell out of everybody else just because they _could._

"No, we were totally up to seventy six!"

"Nu uh! We skipped one!"

The two swapped looks of growing anger while the rest of the car held their breath - a lovers spat was the last thing they needed.

Then Nick grinned and Jeff winked as they chorused, "From the top!"

Blaine immediately stuck his fingers in his ears and began to silently curse the foolish man who created _Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer On The Wall. _

Half an excruciating hour later in which Blaine learned that there was a convention on in the greater Ohio region which was causing the traffic (Trent), certain Warblers did not know how to count (Nick), other Warblers needed to pick more appropriate times to make out with their boyfriend (Jeff) and certain members of the esteemed Council weren't so law abiding when it came to traffic and being late (Wes, and Blaine was just thankful that the policeman let them off with a warning), they arrived. Extremely late.

"Go go go!" Wes barked as they all hurried towards the main entrance. "We need to at least see Vocal Adrenaline and they've drawn third -"

"How do you _know _these things?" Blaine asked as they pushed through the doors, the sound of singing already filtering out from the auditorium.

"I do research," Wes said, ushering the rest of the group to the back entrance. "Just get in there and _pray _that we're not too late or someone's going to pay."

Not entirely sure how Wes was going to make a traffic standstill pay and not wanting to find out, Blaine ducked through the entrance, caught sight of Kurt on stage and just shook his head.

It was definitely not his day.

* * *

><p>"<em>I know," Kurt said mournfully. "Not one of our better outfits. And I was having such a bad hair day."<em>

"_Um, honey," Blaine began gently, "I hate to break it to you but your outfits weren't the worst thing that happened that day."_

"_Blaine, honey," Kurt shot straight back at him, "I am well aware that we lost. And where were the Warblers at Regionals time, huh? Oh right, the same place they were at Sectionals - in the crowd, watching."_

_Blaine winced playfully and Kurt elbowed him. "Okay, okay," Blaine conceded. "We weren't the best, I know."_

"_At least you didn't do an entire Journey medley."_

_Wincing again, this time seriously, Blaine asked, "Are you serious? I only caught the last song."_

"_Ah, of course. The classic -"_

* * *

><p>"<em>Don't Stop Believing,<em>" Trent murmured as they edged along the back wall. "An interesting choice. It seems to advocate a die-hard spirit, a club that's wrought with personal difficulties and struggles, probably within relationships and perhaps family issues that relate to the whole group."

Nick and Blaine glanced at each other, rolling their eyes. "It's just kind of a good song, Trent. I'm sure it doesn't mean anything."

That was kind of a lie - it _wasn't _a good song, not originally. But in true show choir spirit, New Directions were doing all they could to fan the flames of life into a song that had never really had a breath, at least not in Blaine's opinion. And in all actuality, they were doing a pretty good job of it.

The pattern was predictable. Rachel and her charming and still nameless male lead took the majority of the vocals, leaving the rest of the club to back them up. It was almost like the Warblers except for the fact that New Directions imitating instruments was redundant when the instruments were _there_. So really, it was just -

"Oh goody, it's the Finn and Rachel show again," Thad whispered.

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "How on earth do you know these things?" he asked, mentally and finally adding Finn's name to the New Directions dictionary.

"I've seen them perform enough times to know that they're the lead singers," Thad said, eyes glued to the girls from the cheerleading contingent.

"How do you know their names?"

Thad raised a program and Blaine nearly hit himself with it, taking it instead and flicking through to the New Directions section. Sure enough, Finn and Rachel (as well as Santana and Puck who they had apparently missed seeing) were listed as the main singers for the… _final song?_

"Crap," Blaine whispered, looking up just as the music ended and the applause began. He got one glance at Kurt grinning at the audience (he was seriously _pretty _when he smiled) before the lights went down and they were gone.

They stayed for the rest of the show, of course, and watched Vocal Adrenaline take their win as predicted, before splitting their separate ways to go home. The car ride was spent analyzing technique and exactly why the other two teams had lost, but Blaine was in his own world altogether.

That was, almost certainly, the last time Blaine was going to see Kurt until next year at Sectionals. And he honestly didn't know how he felt about it.

* * *

><p>"<em>You missed me."<em>

"_Yeah," Blaine admitted. "I actually did. It was strange; even though every time I saw you took me by surprise, somehow it was even more surprising not running in to you at all."_

"_I'm sure you used your time well enough without me."_

"_I spent the entire holiday writing new songs and playing in Halo tournaments with the other Warblers."_

_Kurt rolled his eyes. "Okay, a 'productive' summer. Good for you. And then that was it until you saw me on the Dalton staircase?"_

_Blaine chuckled at that. "You know me better than that, Kurt. Do you think I'd give up that easily?"_

_Kurt suddenly gasped and flailed his arms around a little, Blaine catching one to make sure Kurt didn't fall off the couch. "Oh my gosh, I thought it wasn't but it could have been, it must have been… I saw you!"_

"_What?"_

"_I know where you were next because I remember; I saw you in the crowd!"_

* * *

><p><strong>Because Kurt isn't blind and it's about time he actually saw his stalker friend.<strong>


	14. Twelfth

**We're getting so close to the end of this story! It sort of crept up on me but we're actually only a couple of chapters from the end!**

**Still in the running: _Wintourr, blue-starryeyed-songjay, iWaldo, Theatreotaku, whatabeautifulmess, writer3098, LiVeLaUgHlOvE24, The Ice Princess _and (only because I'm very nice)_ akatrixie _(HONEY JUST LOOK UP THE NAME OF THE SONG ON THE GLEE WIKI NEXT TIME K? LOVE YOU)**

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><p>"<em>I know where you were next because I remember; I saw you in the crowd!"<em>

"_You're totally messing with me."_

_Kurt shook his head empathetically. "I'm not."_

"_Then why on earth didn't you mention it earlier?"_

"_Well I figured you would have told me if you'd been at my school!" Kurt retorted. "Plus, for the first few months I knew you I only ever saw you with a blazer on, and by the time you weren't obsessively glued inside it, I was too crazy about you to even think about it."_

_Blaine raised an eyebrow, still unconvinced. "And you didn't happen to notice Nick and Jeff?"_

"_Well I don't know where Nick was but tell me, dearest, when exactly did Jeff decide to go blonde?"_

"_About two weeks before you - oh."_

_Kurt nodded. "Yeah. So I saw you and a brunette guy standing there, looked away for a few seconds, turned back and you were gone."_

"_What made you turn back?" Blaine couldn't help but ask._

"_Wondering who you were and why you had been slushied so early in the school year and needed to wash your hair out - it was the only reason I could think of someone having slicked back hair like that at a school like ours."_

_Blaine groaned and elbowed his now-laughing boyfriend. _

* * *

><p>"… and statistics show that the main time for a high school student to defect from the public school in favor of a better education is in the first few days of their Junior year. This is where we have the chance to find those who are disappointed not only with the academia of their current school but those who need a better music and drama department and recruit them to join us. And this, gentlemen, is where you come in."<p>

Silence met that comment and David sighed, reaching over to grab the gavel and rap it loudly. Ten heads jerked up, the eleventh following when Jeff nudged Nick awake. "Let me make it nice and simple for you," David said, holding the gavel out of reach of Wes. "Guys, we're going to public school."

"This is an outrage!" Trent yelled, already on his feet. "You can't decide which school we attend!"

The rest of the room broke out into muttering and Blaine sighed when he caught the eyes of the council staring at him - apparently the only Warbler with 'people skills'. "Okay, everybody shut up for a minute!" he called out, clearly off to a great start with those aforementioned skills. "What they _mean _is that we're going to scope out a public school, put up some stealthy fliers to advertise Dalton and the Warblers and hope that it brings in some new students who didn't already know about us."

More silence until Nick cautiously raised a hand. "Um, why?"

"As I _said_, this is the main time for a high school student to defect from the public school -"

David sighed again and cut Wes off. "Anybody who's been to public high school knows that the majority of them suck, especially for people who love the arts like us. The thing is, schools like Dalton aren't as well known so if people are looking for a school like this, they won't find it unless we reach out to them."

"Let me make something clear though," Thad said, speaking up for the first time that meeting. "You do not _have _to go. I won't be, I have a huge Literature assignment to work on and I need to be in class that day. In fact, I don't condone it because it means skipping school. But since these two are determined to go ahead with it, I wish you the best of luck to those who choose to go."

Looking around the room, Blaine could see that many of the boys had made their minds up already but others were, unsurprisingly, watching him. After the previous year of spying, it seemed that he had become the leader of their adventures and Blaine grimaced as he stood. "We're not spying on anything, guys, we're just going to a few schools, putting up some flyers and getting the hell out of there before any of their staff find us."

"We've got three schools in mind," David said, seemingly encouraged by Blaine's contribution. "Blaine's going to be heading up McKinley High -"

"Excuse me?" Blaine demanded. "I did _not _agree to that!"

And just like that the mood shifted again. "Blaine," Wes said with a hint of pleading in his voice. "Come on, nobody knows that school like you and you've seen the talent there, it's our biggest market by far! And it's exactly like you said - in and out in a few minutes."

Blaine opened his mouth to immediately argue back before stopping, thinking it through properly. With a sly smile he quickly approached the Council desk. "You know that nursing home show we're doing next week that you were planning to audition on Friday?" he asked, receiving confused nods in return. "I want the solo."

Surprisingly there were no arguments, not even from Wes. "Auditions will still be held as a formality but… seriously, Blaine, you were going to get it anyway. We all knew that."

"Oh." Flushing a little, Blaine couldn't help but smile. "Okay. Well then it's not exactly a deal, but… I guess we have a deal."

"Excellent!" Wes raised his voice as Blaine returned to his seat. "Okay, so Blaine will be heading up the McKinley High group, I'll be taking -"

"You guys are with me," Blaine muttered to Nick and Jeff as he sat back down. "At least I know how to tame your crazy."

* * *

><p>"<em>So you actually weren't there to spy for a change."<em>

_Blaine rolled his eyes. "We had no idea you guys had a performance planned. I wouldn't have gone if I'd known."_

"_I'm surprised I never saw any of those flyers," Kurt mused. "But I guess if Rachel saw any of them first she would have gone on a tirade and ripped them all down - probably thought one of us would defect, even though I did in the end…"_

_Blaine shook his head and pulled Kurt closer, well aware that they were getting to the area of Kurt's life that was still difficult for him to talk about. "Not voluntarily," he said firmly, "and not as a result of us. Well, I'd love to think that you saw my charm and stunning good looks and couldn't keep yourself away any longer."_

_It was Kurt's turn to roll his eyes but it was accompanied by a smile. "Well those too," he agreed. "I was in love with you long before you even noticed I was just another blazer, after all."_

"_Hey!" Blaine protested. "Maybe I was a little dense but I never saw you as 'just another guy', Kurt."_

_Kurt's smile softened. "I know. And we've had this conversation five times this summer, let's not repeat it. Continue, O Great Storyteller."_

"_You are not allowed to use that as a nickname."_

"_Just watch me."_

* * *

><p>"This is pointless."<p>

"You don't have to tell me that."

"No, he's right," Jeff said. "I mean, I wouldn't look twice at these. They're so _boring_."

"I said you didn't have to tell me," Blaine said through gritted teeth. "That generally means I agree with you so _you don't have to tell me._"

The two ignored him, as per usual. "This is meant to be for high school students," Jeff continued. "_Arty _high school students. These look like they belong in one of those stuffy office buildings."

"I actually almost wish Trent were here," Blaine told the steering wheel. "At least he acknowledges my presence."

"We acknowledge your presence," Nick said. "Your presence just bores us most of the time."

"Oh gee, _thanks_."

"You're welcome!"

Thankfully they had already reached Lima by that point or Blaine would have been sorely tempted to kick them out and make them find their own way home.

In the end, only a couple of freshmen had volunteered for the task - the rest of the Warblers seemed too panicked about the thought of being caught skipping classes to even think of going. Which left Blaine feeling rather like he was a parent looking after two disobedient children.

"That's incest, Blaine," Nick told him solemnly when Blaine shared this particular insight. "I don't want to date my brother."

"We'll both come and live with you if it makes you happy though," Jeff added, taking Blaine's hand as they walked through the parking lot. Blaine rolled his eyes and pulled away quickly. "Oh fine, be like that," Jeff said sulkily and moved to the other side of Nick.

"I swear you two are _three_," Blaine said wearily. "And that's combined age."

"If you want us to act like we're one and a half, we can -"

"You know what, forget I said anything." The two began to _skip _away, still holding hands, and Blaine just sighed, hurrying after them. "Have you guys forgotten where we are?" he said, grabbing Nick's shoulder to stop him.

"McKinley High," Jeff read off the sign, looking immensely proud of himself.

Blaine shook his head and stopped in front of them, wanting to make his point clear. "This school hates gay people," he said, watching the two smiles in front of him fade. "Yeah. You don't want to deal with the results of that, okay?"

In subdued silence, Nick and Jeff followed Blaine into the school and Blaine suppressed a sigh. He would have to apologize later but right now it was probably better that they were at least a little scared - after all, he was. From his public school experience, Blaine knew that certain jocks could pretty much _smell _if someone was gay and the last thing Blaine needed was for his in-and-out expedition to turn into a visit to a locker or the inside of a port-a-pottie. Especially not for Nick and Jeff who had only ever known the security of Dalton.

"Okay, noticeboards," Blaine murmured. "There's one down the end of that hallway and I think one over near the auditorium and we might be able to get one in the main courtyard if we're lucky. Let's go."

Blaine had already laid down the rules with 'no secret mission music' being top of the list and he could actually _see _how badly Jeff was holding it back when they tacked the notice up, Nick keeping watch as they did. "Can't I just hum?" he asked pleadingly.

"Hum on your own time," Blaine told him and quickly led the way to the auditorium, abandoned at this time of day. He sent Jeff in to stick one up as Nick affixed yet another to the outside noticeboard and breathed a sigh of relief when they walked away. Of course running into a jock was the worst possible scenario but a very close number two was running into any of the McKinley Glee club members. Especially Rachel.

"Wait, wait," Nick said suddenly, cocking his head in the direction of the courtyard. "Didn't you say Glee wasn't cool here?"

"Yeah?"

"Then why is there music?"

Frowning, Blaine took a few steps closer and listened intently and - yes, Nick was right, and it wasn't off a CD either unless Rachel took to recording her club and playing it at lunch times. He sincerely hoped that wasn't the case. "Huh. Okay, let's attempt it anyway. They should be too busy to pay attention to us."

"Blaine?"

"Yes, Jeff?"

"Can I hum _now_? I love this song!"

With a sigh, Blaine waved a noncommittal hand, focusing on the music himself as they got closer. To his surprise, he could hear a whole range of voices that were never usually audible - the rest of the club was actually singing. Over Rachel.

Now this he _had _to see.

_It's not spying, _Blaine told himself firmly as they rounded the corner to the courtyard. _You're here on an entirely unrelated task and - oh holy wow that's Kurt._

Feeling as if his brain was slowly melting, Blaine simply stared down at the spiked up hair, the sunglasses, the well-fitted t-shirt, the _Kurt _he hadn't seen for an entire summer and had _never _seen like this and his heart was doing strange things and it wasn't _fair _because Blaine hadn't so much as grown all summer and Kurt had gone and done _this_.

_God damn it._

"Blaine!"

"Huh, what?"

Jeff was positively smirking at him and Nick tapped Blaine's forehead condescendingly. "I know he's hot but we're here for a reason, remember?"

"You're the one with the poster," Blaine told him. Not looking so smug, Nick turned and began to push through the people to find a noticeboard. Jeff moved to follow but Blaine grabbed his arm. "Don't. Too conspicuous."

Jeff sighed and turned back to the performance, Blaine only too happy to do the same.

Not that there was any performance _left_, however, and why did they always show up at the ends of these things now? Once upon a time, Blaine had been lucky enough to witness entire performances and now, now that he knew how amazing Kurt's voice sounded, he was never even around long enough to hear it.

Although that might actually be a _good _thing, Blaine reminded himself, considering he had spent the entire summer reminding himself that Kurt didn't know he existed and if he did know this would just be really weird and creepy and Blaine couldn't see him anymore, not at all, simple as that.

Except now he had.

"Done," Nick announced, appearing at Blaine's shoulder with empty hands.

"Okay, let's get out of here," Blaine said, heading towards the staircase without waiting to see if the two were following. They would be, of course, and Blaine needed a minute to clear his head and work out what to do next before he was trapped in the car with the Wonder Twins and unable to hear himself think.

The answer, quite simply, was nothing.

No more visits to McKinley, no matter how many solos he was promised. No more thinking about Kurt - there were plenty of other gay guys out there, ones that Blaine could even meet at Dalton who would know who he was in return. It was time to focus on Dalton and the Warblers and making his sophomore year the best he could.

This was the end.

* * *

><p>"<em>You told yourself that a lot, didn't you honey?" Blaine stuck his tongue out in response and Kurt giggled. "Put it away if you're not going to use it."<em>

"_Give me some credit, I really did try this time. I didn't plan to see you but you were there with your hair and your … god, Kurt, that summer really treated you well."_

_Kurt grinned. "Well, put it this way, I had friends to hang out with so I actually spent time out doing things most days. And when Santana Lopez decides she's going to do something to your hair, you kind of have to shut up and stay perfectly still. Those nails can be deadly."_

"_I approve though."_

"_Oh I know."_

_A heated glance passed between them and Blaine was sure, so sure that Kurt was going to act on it, until his boyfriend cleared his throat and leaned back. "There really can't be much more after this. It was only a matter of weeks later that I was meeting you and I don't remember doing anything public in that time. Plus, the whole thing with my dad happened and I don't see you being around for that."_

"_I wasn't," Blaine said, his voice dropping as it did any time they talked about Burt's time in hospital. "And I didn't see anything else before we met but -" He cut himself off, hoping he could get away with it._

_But the damage was done._

"_You - no. Blaine!" Kurt exclaimed, turning on him. "You spied on me when we'd already _met_?"_

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><p><strong>And I leave you with that ;) this is the final time to guess as well (but not the final chapter) so make it count!<strong>


	15. Thirteenth

**As you may have guessed, this is the final 'spying' chapter. Now, I know a few of you are disappointed or confused because I didn't do performances like _Toxic, Time Warp, I Want To Hold Your Hand _or whatever else your Season Two favorite may have been. Let's start with the obvious fact that Blaine couldn't have been there for the last one so it's never been an option. The way I see it is that at this point, Blaine doesn't want to be spying. He's a great guy who doesn't condone cheating on their direct competition (and by this point the Warblers know that New Directions are their competition at Sectionals) and he also doesn't want to spend his time fixated on this guy he doesn't know. For us, who know that Blaine and Kurt are going to meet and get together, it's sweet and funny and we want to see him see everything. For Blaine, it's strange and he feels weird about it because as far as he knows he will never meet this guy. Besides, this is a story that could technically fit in canon and I really don't want to push the bounds of what could actually be. **

**Okay? I hope everybody's okay with that. If you're not, I'm sorry but I'm not going to change my mind. If you want to see a particular performance seen by Blaine, by all means write it yourself. **

**There'll be one more chapter after this which I think is fairly obvious but the competition is over and we have seven winners who will get a prize that I have no idea of what it will be. So if _blue-starryeyed-songjay, iWaldo, whatabeautifulmess, writer3098, Wintourr, The Ice Princess _and _akatrixie_ want to come chat to me, we'll work something out :)**

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><p>"<em>You spied on me when we'd already <em>met_?"_

"_Yes," Blaine said simply, knowing that sugar coating it would only make things worse when it came to Kurt. "It was a little while after Karofsky and I hadn't heard from you in a few days at that point so I thought - well, I didn't want to bother you if there wasn't anything wrong so I thought I'd just go out to your school and see if you were okay."_

"_You could have just called," Kurt said, still sounding a little annoyed. "I wouldn't have minded. I liked it when you called."_

"_I actually ended up calling that night."_

_Kurt's eyes widened in recognition. "Ah, you saw us flood the auditorium then?"_

"_I don't understand how your school gets away with that." Kurt laughed but it was quick and subdued and Blaine knew immediately where his mind had gone. "Hey, I'm sorry," Blaine said, tugging Kurt close again. "I didn't mean to bring up those memories."_

"_It's alright. I guess I'm glad you spied then because it meant you called which meant I could tell you - enough about that though." Kurt snuggled closer and Blaine tightened his grip willingly. "Tell me what you saw."_

* * *

><p>It was around about the fifth time Blaine had forgotten the words, or maybe when David's threats to kick him off lead for the performance actually started getting serious, when Blaine realized it was actually becoming a problem.<p>

He was worried about Kurt.

Blaine knew that things weren't great for Kurt at McKinley - something he had known for some time now but now he was actually allowed to know - and it bothered him to the point that he would make sure to communicate with Kurt in some form at least once a day, whether it be a phone call, a Skype chat or just a text saying _courage. _Because Kurt had it in spades but it never hurt to affirm that or remind him.

Kurt had been pretty responsive at first and they had hung out a few times, triggered by the afternoon spent ditching their respective schools after the Karofsky encounter. Blaine had even met one of Kurt's friends, Mercedes, who he already knew before the introduction but felt it was probably wise not to mention that. The more they talked, the more Blaine realized that the mental picture he had painted of Kurt in his head over the months was actually fairly accurate.

And then Kurt had shut down.

It wasn't like Kurt wasn't talking to him or anything, because that would have been enough to warrant Blaine heading straight out to McKinley days earlier to see what was going on. But Kurt's responses had just become shorter and less frequent and, with what had the potential to be happening, it had finally hit the point where Blaine was worried enough that he needed to do something about it.

"Blaine?"

Jumping, Blaine snapped back to attention to see the Council staring at him and the rest of the Warblers pretending they weren't also doing so. Thad was looking frustrated but Wes and David had apparently realized something was going on. "Practice adjourned," Wes called out, rapping his gavel a few moments later when nobody moved. "That means leave."

As soon as the group had left - except Nick and Jeff who flat-out refused - David was on the case. "Right. Is this about you, your brother, your family or Kurt?"

"What, I don't have a different face for each one?" Blaine asked dryly. Five pairs of concerned eyes stared back at him and he sighed. "It's Kurt."

"Did something happen to him?"

Blaine shrugged. "I don't know and that's the problem."

Wes sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just wish we could bring him here. I mean, I don't know what's going on but I remember that look on his face when you made us leave."

So did Blaine, and that was the problem.

"I think I'm going to go out there and check on him," he announced, surprising himself with the decision. "Just so I can see - I mean, if he's just busy with other stuff then that's fine. But if something's wrong and I didn't go and check…"

"Go," Jeff said immediately.

"I will, but I wish I could do something now."

Wes sighed. "Go _now_," he said with emphasis, rolling his eyes at Blaine's incredulous expression. "Yes, I know it's not the end of the day but you've skipped school for him before and this is one of those things that Dalton would excuse you for anyway, you know that. Plus, if you wait until after school you might not catch him; this way you'll get there right at the end of the day."

A valid point, but Blaine still hesitated. "It's just -" he finally began. "Look, I know him now. It's one incredibly weird thing to have been seeing him constantly when he didn't know who I was, but this is now in the level of spying on a friend."

"Please, like we didn't do the same to you when you first got here."

"You _what_?"

David arched an eyebrow, not looking at all contrite. "Remember the amount of messages we delivered to your teachers in the first few weeks by any chance?"

"We aren't that much of teachers pets," Wes continued. "That was our way of making sure you were settling in fine. When you started hanging with the terrible two here," Wes gestured to Nick and Jeff who were trying and failing to look indignant, "we stopped checking on you. But we're not sorry for it, we're glad we did it, so go do the same for Kurt."

* * *

><p>"<em>And then you drove all the way to McKinley, agonizing over whether it was the right thing to do or not but still ended up finding yourself outside the auditorium."<em>

"_If I'm getting that boring, feel free to stop me."_

"_Of course not, honey. Just saving you some time."_

_"Okay... what are you doing?"_

_Kurt looked up innocently, fingers still flying over the screen of his phone as he did. "Just texting Wes and David. Bit of a belated thank-you note. Keep going though."_

* * *

><p>There was really no guarantee they'd show up, Blaine kept on telling himself as he leaned against the railing and watched the tech group set up the lights. After all, just because they had performed in the auditorium pretty much every Friday that Blaine had happened to be there didn't mean they would today.<p>

When the stagehands began to flood the stage with water, Blaine was pretty sure he was in the right place; he just didn't know _why_.

Although, by now Blaine - and the rest of Dalton - had kind of figured out that New Directions did what they wanted and if that meant flooding the damn auditorium for a reason that made perfect sense to them and them alone then so be it.

And there they were.

There was a blonde woman leading up the procession and Blaine raised an eyebrow at her, not sure who she was and glad he hadn't brought Wes who would probably be drooling by now. Granted, the outfits were quite nice for the women but they weren't the ones Blaine was there to focus on. That honor was for Kurt alone.

He didn't pay attention to the performance - or at least tried not to, Blaine _was _a performer after all and music caught his attention - because the last thing he wanted was to inadvertently spy this close to Sectionals. But with the safe knowledge that it would take the Warblers weeks to learn how to perform a mashup combined with the fact that New Directions would probably not get away with any water used at the competition meant that Blaine didn't feel so bad for hanging around.

And besides, the only person he was really focused on was Kurt.

Kurt looked… okay. It could have just been that he was focused but Blaine had seen Kurt when he was performing, seen the spark that appeared when he was doing something he loved. And maybe Kurt wasn't too thrilled about the song choice or getting his shoes wet, but maybe Kurt was distracted or upset.

On a whim, Blaine quickly pulled his phone out and sent a message, trying to ignore the way that the two teachers (at least Blaine presumed that was why the woman was there) were pretty much shamelessly flirting in front of their students as they ended the song. Instead his eyes tracked the path of Kurt who quietly separated himself from the group and headed towards his bag. Blaine watched as he pulled out his phone, eyes widening in surprise at the screen.

_Is it really that rare for him to get a message?_

But it was when Kurt smiled that Blaine knew something was wrong. Because it was that same smile he had worn when Blaine had first gotten his number and promised to stay in touch - the smile of disbelief that someone actually _wanted _to talk to him.

Something had happened to make Kurt doubt himself again, to shake him up. And Blaine was going to deal with it.

* * *

><p>"<em>Yes, having your life threatened and nobody noticing is kind of bad for self esteem."<em>

"_Never again," Blaine promised, kissing Kurt swiftly between words. "If anybody tries anything like that, I'll notice and I'll be there. I wish I had been there," he added quietly._

_Kurt shook his head, smiling softly. "You were. Even if I didn't know it at the time, it turns out you've always been there."_

* * *

><p><strong><strong>My beta thinks this is too angsty. Apologies if it is but considering Kurt's storyline at the time of this chapter, I can't exactly make it happy.<strong>**

**Next chapter is the final one! (and if you didn't read the first authors note and suddenly learned of this and find yourself indignant because I didn't do a certain song, please go ahead back to the top and read).**


	16. Conclusion

**Final chapter!**

**Just to make things entirely clear, the previous chapter was the Singing In The Rain/Umbrella mashup. I had a few questions in response to that one. The winners have been selected and quite a few of them actually opted out of prizes, but I am working on a summer Klaine oneshot for iWaldo and The Ice Princess (which will be available to all when it's [eventually] written). If you did win and have not yet contacted me in regards to the prize, send a PM or a Tumblr message my way and we'll talk details :)**

**Unedited chapter because Angela's busy right now. I hope there aren't mistakes.**

**And ugh I was trying to write this while I was waiting to watch Dance With Somebody and knowing some of the episode spoilers and oh my god I nearly died. Then I watched the episode and nearly died. **

**So enjoy the final chapter!**

* * *

><p>"<em>So that's… fourteen times?"<em>

_Blaine nodded, looking down at his hands. "I - I know. It's weird and creepy and… you're smiling?"_

_Kurt took Blaine's hands in his own with a small sigh. "Blaine, if I had a huge problem with this, you would have known long before we got to this moment."_

_"So it's okay?"_

"_It isn't a story one expects to hear from his boyfriend but I'm not breaking up with you over it or anything. It's actually quite amusing."_

_It was Blaine's turn to sigh, this time in relief. "Good," he murmured, stroking Kurt's hand with his thumb and watching his gaze turn curious. "What?"_

_"I'm just trying to work out how you managed to look so surprised when you saw me on the staircase behind you." Kurt let his head rest back on Blaine's shoulder. "I mean, you looked like you'd never seen me before in your life."_

_Blaine laughed. "That surprise was real. I was trying to work out what on earth you were doing there and how to not let on that I kind of already knew far too much about you."_

* * *

><p>"Damn it, come on!"<p>

Blaine waited impatiently until the last piece of paper had been spat out of his printer. Stapling the assignment together hastily, he shoved it in his bag and darted out of the library. The impromptu Warbler performance - and by impromptu, he meant that the Warblers had planned it two weeks ago and rehearsed fourteen times so far - was due to start any minute and without Blaine, it was pretty much open mic night at the Warbler karaoke bar. And while that was fun for parties, Wes wasn't going to be too thrilled if Blaine missed this, especially with Sectionals so close.

Taking the stairs quickly, Blaine cursed under his breath as he noticed the entrance hall thinning of people, all clearly making their way to the commons. If Blaine had been in less of a hurry, he certainly would have noticed the figure slowly making its way down the stairs - the distinctive hair, high fashion outfit, porcelain skin. And usually Blaine wouldn't have stopped if someone had called out to him when he was in such a hurry, but that voice froze Blaine in his tracks.

"Excuse me!"

_Kurt._

A million thoughts all rushed through Blaine's head followed by the obvious conclusion that left him reeling - _somehow Kurt had figured out about the stalking and had tracked him down to tell him to stop. _

But no matter what, he needed to face up to it.

Turning around slowly, Blaine put his best confused expression on and stared up at the boy who he still couldn't quite believe was _here_. Kurt looked a little worried but mostly confused himself as he stared right at Blaine for the first time. "Can I ask you a question? I'm new here."

And that was so far from the truth because if Kurt were a new transfer, he would have a uniform and an older student guiding him around the campus for his first day. After all, Blaine had done it, he knew how it worked.

No, this was definitely not a transfer.

This was _spying. _

And Blaine was actually kind of proud, except worried at the same time because a) all it would take was one Warbler to ruin everything and b) it was Kurt who had come. Kurt who had shown up at the safest school in Ohio with a look in his eyes that Blaine knew far too well and if this was more than spying...

Well, if it was, Blaine was going to make sure Kurt felt welcome.

Blaine nodded, taking a step closer and holding out his hand, bracing himself for the moment he had never thought would truly come.

"My name is Blaine."

Slender fingers grasped his softly.

"Kurt."

And Kurt finally knew of his existence.

* * *

><p><em>"And now that memory takes on a whole new level of meaning."<em>

_Blaine glanced down at him. "It had a lot of meaning before?"_

_Kurt snorted incredulously and lifted his head. "It was the first time I met the love of my life, Blaine. Of course it did. I'm pretty sure I started falling for you the second you took my hand."_

_Unable to resist, Blaine brushed his hand against Kurt's, grasping it in the same awkward manner he had as they had run down the hallway together. "Meanwhile I was trying to convince myself that doing something like asking you out there and then would really be a stupid idea."_

_"I was falling and you were pulling away," Kurt mused softly. "Interesting. And then I watched you sing -"_

_"And got all the intel you needed to take back to New Directions," Blaine added with a smirk. _

_Kurt was silent for a moment. "I never told them, you know," he admitted. _

_That was news to Blaine. "But the whole point of you spying was that you would take back information!" he protested. "I mean, yeah, you came to Dalton for other reasons but you still said you'd gather information - you mean we could have used Teenage Dream for Sectionals?"_

_Kurt kissed the corner of his mouth apologetically. "I would have felt too bad if I had. Only Puck remembered to ask about Dalton anyway and I just told him that I didn't see anything."_

_"But... why?"_

_"Why didn't you kick me out for being a spy or report New Directions for cheating?" Kurt retorted calmly. "More to the point, why didn't Wes?"_

_"Pretty sure Wes was the last person you needed to worry about."_

* * *

><p>"I can't believe it," Wes finally said.<p>

Blaine nodded his agreement. "It's strange to think we've been spied on by the very school we've been doing the same to for so long."

"No, not that," Wes cut in. "I can't believe we never thought to pull the _I'm new here _card. It would have worked so easy if we didn't have uniforms."

"Because _that's _the most important thing out of all of this," Blaine huffed. "Guys, Kurt's here. _Kurt. _At Dalton. Spying on us and thank god nobody said anything but Kurt is _here._"

Jeff raised an eyebrow. "Want to say it a few more times and see how much emphasis we can create?"

Blaine sighed. "Why send Kurt?" he finally asked. "Why send the guy with the most outlandish style who draws attention to himself instead of one of the other guys who could blend in? Why send Kurt in the middle of the day to wander around the school with no idea where to find anything?"

There was a reason Nick was Blaine's favorite; he was always quickest on the uptake. "Kurt didn't just come to spy," he said slowly. "Maybe he was sent but there was more to him coming."

"But he joined the cheerleading team and everything," Wes said in confusion. "I thought things were better."

"From what we saw, being in Glee club makes you a social outcast at that school," Blaine explained. "Kurt's gay too, that's the worst combination in public schools like that. I don't know, maybe things got better but I saw the look in his eyes when I shook his hand, like no other guy had ever dared to touch him in a friendly way except maybe the Glee club guys."

"But what do we do?" Jeff asked. "It's not like we can enrol him here or go beat up his bullies for him."

Blaine grinned, glancing in the direction of the doorway - even though Kurt had left a good ten minutes ago - because Kurt hadn't left without Blaine getting his say.

"We give him support."

* * *

><p>"<em>You know, telling someone to 'come back tomorrow, the performance is going to be even better!' is a bit of a giveaway. What if I had only been there to spy?"<em>

_Blaine shrugged. "You came back. That was really all I needed. And if you'd done your spying well, you would know that we performed I'm Yours the previous year at Regionals so we really gave you nothing to spy on. I just - I needed you there so we could talk."_

"_And I needed to talk. I needed you."_

_Blaine caught Kurt's chin and tilted it so he could kiss him. "You have me. You've always had me and you're never losing me."_

_The smile he received in return was watery but genuine, unleashing a million memories. _

* * *

><p>Kurt left after a few more minutes, claiming he needed to get back to his school just in case any of the teachers noticed. His tone was just a bit too bitter and Blaine couldn't help but lean over and squeeze his arm as they were walking out to the carpark, provoking Kurt to laugh self-deprecatingly. "I'm sorry, I sound like such a wimp."<p>

"Hey, no," Blaine said, and stopped walking so Kurt would have to face him. "I've been there, remember? I get it."

Kurt smiled but it didn't look happy, not like he had yesterday when he had been watching the performance. And all it took was that tear-filled smile - the smile that _deserved _to be genuine - for Blaine to make the final decision necessary.

"Here," he said, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen. "I'll give you my number and Kurt, I want you to use it whenever you need it. If things are going bad and you have nobody to talk to, call me or send a text. If you just want to talk, I'm here. But please use it. I hate to think of you being so far away and going through hell and not having anybody to talk to when there's someone right here who knows how it feels."

Blaine was pretty sure it was only through excessive willpower that Kurt didn't break down on the spot as he took the piece of paper. "But - why are you doing this? You don't even know me."

_Kurt Hummel, you have no idea._

"I want to," Blaine said honestly. "Not just because you're struggling and I understand it. Because you're a wonderful person, Kurt, and you deserve to have friends. And I want to be one of them."

A tear escaped and Blaine resisted every urge - to wipe it away, to pull Kurt into his arms and never let go - holding himself back to a simple touch to Kurt's arm. "Text me, okay?" he said quietly before letting go and stepping back. "Drive safe."

He watched the car leave because, well, why wouldn't he? Because this time, this wasn't Blaine trying to say goodbye to Kurt and pretend he didn't exist, Blaine saying goodbye to a Kurt who didn't even know who he was.

This was Blaine welcoming Kurt into his life.

* * *

><p>"<em>Do you believe in fate?" Kurt asked a few hours later and Blaine paused the movie, turning to face Kurt inquisitively. "I'm just curious."<em>

"_I don't know. It's not something I've entirely thought about but - I mean, the amount of times we met…"_

_Kurt nodded. "I might not believe in God but that doesn't mean I don't think there might be something out there. Whether there is or whether karma is real or any of that, I just know that you and I are supposed to be right here. You were supposed to see me all of those times - no matter how creepy it may appear - and I was supposed to call out to you on the staircase. This is where we belong."_

_Now it was Blaine's turn to blink back tears because it was _true_. "People say they can't imagine life without the person they love," he finally murmured, catching Kurt's hand where it was tracing soft circles into his side and clutching tight. "I can't imagine all those months if I hadn't ever seen you, let alone what it would have been like if you hadn't come to Dalton that day."_

"_Fate or no fate, it was all meant to be," Kurt whispered, pressing his forehead against Blaine's. "So thank you for being my stalker."_

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you all for being my stalkers of this story! I hope you had a great ride, it's been so much fun having you all along and interacting. As usual, if you've found this story at the point of completion and read it in one hit, I'd love for you to drop me a review and tell me what you think :)<strong>

**You guys are the best. **

**Until next time!**

**Love Sarah.**


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